The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Lagos zone has discredited a recent online publication by Peoples Gazette that two-third of Nigerian doctors and nurses demand bribes before attending to patients.
The conclusion was purportedly drawn from a recent report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NMA, in a statement on Sunday by its chairman BKS Saheed, described the report as “malicious misinformation”.
The statement said, “For the avoidance of doubt, Nigerian doctors are among the most sought-after healthcare practitioners in the world. Our work ethic is still top-notch despite the overwhelming workload caused by a grossly disproportionate doctor-to-patient ratio, exacerbated by abysmal remuneration and poor facilities. These factors have led to an unrelenting exodus of our members seeking greener pastures.
“We acknowledge the effort of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the United Nations office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) for the efforts to stamp corruption out of Nigeria and the courage in publishing the third corruption survey titled ‘Corruption in Nigeria: Pattern and trends’. We however note the following concrete observations in the report.
“In general, it is heart warming that the survey, reported in a section that more than 70% of respondents in the survey refused to pay bribes demanded by public officials. Meaning that Nigerians are increasingly empowered to confront and decline requests from bribe-seeking corrupt officials to do their work.
“Further more, we expected the aforementioned online media outlet to diligently study and accurately report the findings of the NBS survey rather than playing to the gallery with random, bloated and fictitious figures in the writer’s imagination!
“If the reporter had done due diligence, they would have realized that the respondents-based national survey of 33,035 households in the 36 States and FCT reported 4% requests by or payments of bribes among Doctors, Nurses and midwives cluster.
“Despite having some reservations about the professionals’ clustering of doctors, nurses and midwives in the survey, we are still at a loss as to where the reporter got his/her two-third quoted figure! A whooping 67% instead of the 4% reported in the referenced NBS report.
“While we pledge to continue to give our best to our esteemed patients, we however frown at any attempt to malign our hardworking and ever-sacrificing members. The medical practitioners’ community and the regulatory body (Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria) have robust disciplinary process for erring members and we do not condone any misconduct of any of our members. In the same vein, we will not allow any online yellow journalism practicing media to tarnish our hard earned reputation.
“Finally, the NMA would not hesitate to use any lawful means to seek redress on any perceived damage on our profession from this callous publication and similar matters. To this extent, we demand from the publisher of the said maligning and deliberate misleading online report to retrace its steps and pull down the said publication immediately.”
