Poor teamwork, recurrent strikes and the need for volunteer work by health workers in Nigeria

Abstract

Public hospitals are equipped and health workers are employed to serve patients. Without patients, there will be no need for hospitals and health workers. Recent events in Nigeria however have made the patient to receive less than optimal services from public hospitals and health workers. Team work in public hospitals is currently at an all time low. The health workers are embroiled in a supremacy battle with each other. All the professional groups pledge their allegiance to their various unions which are projecting the image of being superior or at par with each other. This also affects service. Ward rounds are no longer what they used to be as they are conducted by separate professional groups at different times. The laboratories are locked down by infighting among the various health workers. The list goes on. As there is no unity of purpose, the quality of health care has dramatically fallen.