Medical negligence in Nigeria is not just a series of isolated errors; it is often a failure of professionalism expectations.
With the recent cases of medical negligence in some Nigerian hospitals, it appears as if professionalism has taken an emergency leave.
Professionalism is supposedly to be display of the competencies of health practitioners rather than display of negligence of applicability of skills, knowledge and expertise to the detriment of a life saving sector. Of course, professionalism is grossly against unguided assumption and presumption that are not founded on the global principles of medical best practices.
In Chimamanda Adichie’s son’s case, professionalism would have meant treating pediatric sedation like handling raw eggs; gently, carefully and with eyes wide open. As for the woman whose stomach became a temporary storage unit for surgical tools, professionalism would have meant counting instruments like your salary depends on it because lives actually do.
At the end of the day, professionalism is what separates a hospital from a hazard zone. Nigeria is not lacking brilliant doctors; we are lacking systems and cultures that insist on doing things properly every single time. If professionalism had shown up to work in these cases, we wouldn’t be consoling grieving families or asking scary questions like, “Is going to the hospital safe?”