Public vs. Private Healthcare in Nigeria: A Tale of Two Systems

One of the major things everyone looks forward to getting when they pay a visit to one place or another is getting the best of service, be it from a government-owned organization or that of a privately owned establishment. However, for a country like mine, when it comes to getting quality services, it's obvious when such can be gotten between both, and in this article I'll be talking extensively about both, using my personal experiences as a yardstick to buttress my opinion on why I chose the one I did and several other points, so without further ado, let's get to it.

In most top world countries, their governments owned establishments usually turn out to be the best in all ramifications compared to private companies; however, the reverse is the case down here in my country, Nigeria, in basically almost all sectors, be it health, power, hospitality, and the likes, and it's quite disheartening to see these as a reality in a nation that's rich in numerous natural resources, and one of the reasons why usually privately owned establishments stand out above the government ones is due to the fact that they've got a great maintenance culture that helps keep their standards in check and up-to-date at all times, which isn't the case with government-owned establishments.

For instance, using the healthcare sector as an example, as I've been in and out of most of them in the past few weeks, governments usually have the best medical practitioners and equipment that would make treatment and checkups more seamless for their staff; however, given the cheaper charges compared to private hospitals, you'll tend to see many people preferring the government hospitals, which can go on to make the doctors become overwhelmed with work, and these usually lead to them not taking out time to thoroughly vet the status of patients well-being because they still have many other patients to attend to.

About four or five years ago, when my brother was ill and admitted to the government-owned hospital in Ilorin, it wasn't a palatable experience with most of their services, even though it's much cheaper; sometimes I just wish we had money so we could move him to a private hospital. I remember there was a time they performed a surgery on him, and not long after he came out of the theater, we learned that doctors had gone on strike; meanwhile, he's still admitted at the hospital and out to be regularly monitored because of the just-concluded surgery.

But that can't happen due to their strikes, and then we watch how the stitches used in mending the part that was operated on come off, making us literally see most of his internal organs; at that point, we had no choice but to find money from every means to take him to a private hospital, where he was then well treated and operated upon without any complications and the like. All of these issues are why we usually prefer privately owned establishments because their services are usually top-notch.

While government-owned organizations usually have top professionals in the field, have good facilities sometimes, are cheaper, and the likes, their downside revolves around their lack of maintenance, understaffing that leads to unprecedented treatment of patients, and several others, while with the private sector, they usually treat you pretty well, although they are usually expensive, but their service makes up for that.

Plus, even if they don't have a top-class staff like a surgeon to perform a surgery, they'll pay government doctors from top hospitals to come carry out the operation at their place, and in such cases it's usually done well because the doctor knows they'll be handsomely paid for their service, unlike government, which usually owns their staff, leading to their lack of zeal for the job.

Overall, my preference between both is private-owned establishments, and I'm not shy to say that; it's just that one doesn't have enough money to pay for those services. That's why we use the government ones. If the government-owned organization, like healthcare, were good, the politicians that set them up themselves wouldn't lie to themselves to be treated outside the country.

Both photos are mine.