The Nigerian Medical Association has rejected a National Assembly (NASS) proposal to fine and imprison healthcare workers who refuse emergency patients, telling lawmakers to first compel governments to repair the country’s hospitals.
The association’s president, Prof. Afekhide Ernest Omoti, made the position known in a statement, describing the proposed sanctions as unjust.
The NMA called on the National Assembly to hold governments accountable for failing to provide the resources, infrastructure and enabling environment required for effective emergency medical services, and urged lawmakers to confront the systemic problems in the health sector rather than punish health professionals.
Omoti noted that the National Health Act already provides a legal framework for protecting patients who need emergency treatment, with existing provisions prohibiting the refusal of emergency care.
He argued that it is fundamentally unfair to impose criminal liability on healthcare workers and hospitals for failing to provide services when governments have not fulfilled their own responsibility to supply the necessary resources and enabling environment.
According to him, the critical question is not the absence of legislation but the failure to implement existing provisions and create conditions for their effective execution.
He said: “Of particular importance is Section 6 of the National Health Act, which establishes the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, BHCPF, and provides for the funding of emergency medical treatment.
“This provision recognises that emergency care requires financial support and that healthcare facilities must not be left to bear the cost of providing such services without appropriate reimbursement.”
Omoti lamented that implementation of the BHCPF remains inadequate, leaving hospitals that provide emergency treatment to carry considerable financial costs without the expected refunds or reimbursement.
He said: “This creates an unsustainable situation in which hospitals are expected to provide emergency care without the necessary financial support.”
The NMA president identified the shortage of doctors and other health professionals as a major challenge, attributing it to poor remuneration, unfavourable working conditions, inadequate infrastructure, insecurity, excessive workloads and the absence of an enabling professional environment.
He said these factors have driven the alarming migration of Nigerian doctors and nurses to other countries, including neighbouring African nations where conditions of service are increasingly attractive.
He said: “Our hospitals are consequently operating with dangerously inadequate manpower. In several facilities, the few available doctors are expected to manage overwhelming patient loads, sometimes under extremely difficult circumstances and without adequate support.”
Omoti also decried the state of infrastructure and the persistent shortage of essential medical supplies, listing oxygen, essential drugs, blood and blood products, resuscitation equipment, medical consumables, functional ambulances and other life-saving facilities as basic emergency-care requirements that are not readily available in many institutions.
He said: “How can we reasonably expect a doctor to provide emergency care when the hospital lacks the basic equipment, drugs and consumables required to save a life?
“How can we threaten health workers with imprisonment for circumstances that are substantially beyond their control?”
He advised the National Assembly to address the fundamental deficiencies in the healthcare system rather than introduce punitive measures that could further demoralise an already distressed workforce.
He also urged the Senate to reconsider the proposed amendment in its present form and redirect its legislative efforts towards addressing the challenges undermining emergency healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
- Media Report