PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress (Sack) Disorder

Recently, civilization was taken back by another century by the progressive minded BRF-led government in Lagos State. While men like El-Rufai and Japh Omojuwa endorsed the supposed timely decision of the Executive Governor, other more critically thinking ones thought the action was ill-advised, even ill-timed at its best.


The government under BRF threw out almost 800 of the doctors working across the state in the General Hospitals and the Teaching Hospital. Now, I will not delve into what may have precipitated this imbroglio. That is now spilled milk. Rather I will only, in passing, draw attention to the alacrity with which a learned man like BRF sacked the medical doctors. It was probably the most risible action I had ever seen taken by any government.


A lot of us know of PTSD. It is a psychiatric condition that typically follows exposure to a psychologically traumatic event. Typically, the condition is an anxiety disorder and the patient may display a wide spectrum of symptoms ranging from anxiety to aversion to apathy.


What BRF and his goons have put the Medical Doctors in its employ through is arguably the worst form of PTSD. Aside from the sacked ones, even the unaffected ones have been infinitely cowered into their shells. They now cringe at the slightest batting of an eyelid by those in power. Some may argue that this was one of the actual objectives of the LASG. Some say the action was only designed to 'shake' the doctors and remind all the other civil servants in the State that there are indeed no sacred cows in the State civil service.


While the brouhaha lasted in the health sector, what worried me the most was the perception of the general public on the matter. I read with untold agony the derision and disrespect with which members of the public took the doctors to the cleaners. There was no derogatory name under the sun I didn't see in the newspapers. Suddenly, the doctors in Lagos were an anathema to the same people they laboriously toiled to offer medical services to. As far as Lagosians were concerned, the doctors were callous, ignoble and insolent.


Personally, after the recall to work, my own form of PTSD was in the form of apathy. Some others developed acute anxiety, some others aversion, some others actually developed the insolence they had been accused of  inadvertently. 


Every morning, I look into the faces of my colleagues at work. They smile when they can but beyond that, all I see is dejection and fear. There is no sense of fulfillment and the feeling of betrayal, not just from their employers and colleagues, but from the public is hard to miss. I then wonder, what quality of care these doctors will offer to the teeming patients who line up everyday to complain of one thing or the other.


You cannot give what you don't have and Newton also states that 'To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction'. During the crisis, the public showed little empathy for the doctors and now, those doctors have unfortunately also lost some degree of empathy for the patients. Most of them will probably not admit it but it is very true. 


Prior to the fracas, I remember vividly how doctors in my center occasionally even had to contribute money for some patients. For drugs, for transportation, for their meals sometimes. I have a doctor friend who routinely donates blood to patients as he feels he has enough and should help those who are in need of healthy blood. I know how doctors prick themselves with needles and risk their own lives just because someone's wife or husband or father or mother needs attention urgently. Just two days ago, someone I know had to give intravenous Aminophylline to a woman who suddenly collapsed from acute sever asthma. He didn't even ask for gloves, he was so desperate to save the lady's life that he put his at risk by using a sharp without universal precaution and safety. Foolish, isn't it? After-all, who begged him?


Interestingly, the LASG in its folly laid off its best doctors. Take it from me, it is a fact. All the doctors that they had on their side were actually the noxiously sly ones who were deemed to be 'faithful to Hippocratic Oaths'. It is only out of courtesy and civility that I will refrain from mentioning specific names, at least as concerns where I work.


Every day, I now see doctors who can't wait to leave the employment of the LASG. They are almost itching to leave and their body languages fail to conceal this fact. Already, the lucky ones have started tendering their resignations. The ones that have not, have only not done so but for paucity of 'greener pastures'. Again, unfortunately, those leaving are by far the best doctors in the employment of the LASG. A doctor who despises where he works and resumes at his duty post everyday thinking when and how he can resign from his employment is certainly not the doctor I would like to see if I were a patient. Thanks to LASG, these are the doctors left to attend to its citizenry. If they've not left yet, then they are certainly contemplating their exit actively. Again, what is the quality of care such a doctor will offer to any patient?


After all is said and done, who suffers? Our politicians do not patronize the hospitals. Their family members will not visit either. Who visits? It is the same people who eagerly vilified doctors in the newspaper comment sections. It is the market woman, it is the career civil servant, it is the artisan, it is the okada rider. These are the ones who will continually suffer for not just the attrition of doctors but also the decline in the quality of care offered by the remaining doctors.


A school of thought holds that the doctors can leave and allow the contract-staff doctors take up the appointments. A Yoruba adage says 'the cane the husband used to flog the old wife is behind the door awaiting the new wife'. I wish the new doctors the very best.


Ironically, the doctors are now patients suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress/Sack Disorder. Most may still be in denial of this condition. It is not totally out of place for them to be. The mere fact that they can hardly wait to get new jobs is enough evidence that the clinical condition is progressing. Soon, the apathy will become full blown and they'll damn consequences and leave the system to rot.


A recent report released shows that Nigeria has lost 20,000 of its trained doctors to foreign countries and that the United States alone captured 4,000 of this number. These figures I earnestly anticipate will grow in the coming days and weeks. I read a comment on Twitter by some non-entity, he said the doctors can all go, after-all what impact had they made all the while they've been here. This person is an educated person. Worrisome.


The acrimony and contempt with which the LASG has treated its doctors will not abate anytime soon. Instead the decay will deepen and the rot will spread. Gradually, doctors will become persona non grata in the country. This will not shock anyone, as it is surely in keeping with any society on the road to perdition. Having a hard time recognizing any society sitting on a time-bomb? Assess the education and health sectors. There, that's your answer.


Meanwhile, my unreserved appreciation to Mr Raji Fashola and his goons. That decision he took that fateful Monday morning has revolutionized the way I see the health sector and the outlook of Nigeria as a whole.


What would be the point of beating a very dead, now rotten, horse....






Follow 'Wole @drwalls28 on Twitter.