Medical Negligence in Nigeria

On November 8, 2007, I woke up pursuing the day's business - from last minute revisions of the readings for the day's Ph.D seminar to making urgent calls in preparation for my flight to Toronto where I was to be conferred with the Master of Laws degree at the University of Toronto. The convocation was scheduled for November 16th. In the midst of all that, I failed to notice that this was not just another day. It was not until a few minutes after midnight that I recalled I was called to the Nigerian Bar on November 8th. In the quiet of the night, I took my mind back down memory lane, to life in Nigeria as a law student, struggling with the textbook rules of Tort, Contract and Evidence Law. I had particular interest in Tort, for the primary reason that I could spot potential tortous actions everywhere I turned. From the churches erected beside residential homes to the man selling panasoanic products to commuters stuck in a traffic jam and to the deposit of sand in front of my family house by some company truck. Then, there was the topic on negligence, which again held a lot of attraction for me because private research had shown just how broad and significant the topic is in law. Thus, poring over the texts of M.A. Jones' Medical Negligence, I knew I had found what I wanted to do for graduate studies. I was not thinking of practicing in that area. Though it seemed like an attractive option when mother died in the hands of a doctor who had made mistakes a farmer treating a patient would have avoided, yet my paramount interest was to discover the legal rules applicable to medical interventions. My firm belief is that in the midst of the evils of medical paternalism, health sector mismanagement, and lack of access to care which Nigerians in their millions suffer daily, what is paramount is to search for options, to advocate for change. The pursuit of change will of course involve the identification of the hardships that Nigerians suffer.

However, in disagreement with Dr. Chamberlain Peterside (Ph.D.) who authors one of my postings below, it is not enough to draw up a list of the "crimes" of the Nigerian healthcare system. The question that needs to be answered through research, dialogue and medico-legal scholarship is: "what is to be done?" Peterside writes on Nigeria's healthcare system and the strain on human capital in honour of a late brother. Hoping that the outburst brings relief, it is important to implore Nigerians who are as well-placed as Dr. Peterside to use their remarkable talent in providing answers to the question posed above. For someone who is as well-placed in the financial industry, Peterside would make an impact by helping to study Nigeria's health economy. Surely, something can be done.

In the next article, H.A. Olaniyan of the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law at the University of Lagos, writes on liability for medical negligence in Nigeria. The article was published in the Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences.

Finally, I have provided a link to the abstract of an article of mine on how medical negligence is addressed under Nigeria's budding National Health Insurance Scheme. The work, which is currently under review, evaluates the provisions of the National Health Insurance Act on the issue of adverse results of medical intervention. I compared the merits of the system of no-fault compensation operative in some foreign jurisdictions with that of the malpractice system operational in Nigeria.



WHAT A HEALTH CARE SYSTEM? …NIGERIA’S MEDICINE AND STRAIN ON HUMAN CAPITAL

Chamberlain Peterside

Time and again we have seen where even the well-heeled in society couldn't survive, due to lack of immediate care, malpractice or focus on the wrong ailment. These are all attributes of a dysfunctional health sector that needs immediate fixing. Recently the UN rated Nigeria very high in terms of infant mortality and low chances of women surviving during child labor. Numerous statistics say a great deal about the deplorable condition, revealing that average life expectance in Nigeria has declined precipitously over decades to late 1st-century levels of Europe (40-45 years). Per capita heath care expenditure or as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the lowest in the world. You only need to look at the chart below that compares healthcare indicators in some of the poorest countries in the world to understand the sense of urgency ...

http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/peterside/031907.html


Liability for Medical Negligence in Nigeria
Abstract

H.A. Olaniyan

The paper discusses professional negligence of Medical Practitioners and other Medical allied staff in the light of the general law of Negligence, the Rules of Professional Ethics of Medical and Dental Practitioners in Nigeria, the decisions of the Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (MDPDT) and of the Appellate or Superior Courts of Nigeria.

Keywords: medical negligence, Nigerian law, duty

Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences Vol. 4(2) 2005: 165-175

http://www.ajol.info/viewarticle.php?id=24489



Nigeria's Health Insurance Scheme and Claims in Adverse Consequences of Medical Intervention: Civil Liability or No-Fault Compensation?

Ireh Iyioha

Abstract:
Inequitable distribution of health facilities, inflationary cost of healthcare services and inaccessibility to existing infrastructure have been some of the serious challenges to the survival of the working class Nigerian. There are the everyday emergencies that have ended in fatality because of the prerequisite of down payments before treatment even in public hospitals. Nigerians have also greatly suffered the consequences of medical negligence in silence. In an attempt to reverse the deplorable state of medical intervention, Nigeria's Federal Government recently established the National Health Insurance Scheme, thus overcoming decades of pessimism over its birth due to its checkered history. Today, the Formal Sector Social Health Insurance Programme is a social health security system in which the healthcare of employees in the formal sector is paid for from funds created by the contributions of employees and employers.

This work examines the parameters laid down by the National Health Insurance Act to address the adverse results of medical intervention. It compares the merits of the system of no-fault compensation operative in some foreign jurisdictions with that of the malpractice system operational in Nigeria.

The argument is for a system - whatever its appellation - of strict accountability.

Keywords: Medical Negligence, Malpractice Litigation, No-fault Compensation, Nigerian National Health Insurance Scheme

http://hq.ssrn.com/submissions/MyPapers.cfm?partid=730295