By Ajibola Adedoye
Dr Jide Onyekwelu, immediate past Secretary General, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has advised medical doctors to discharge their duties with modesty, love for humanity and fear of God.
Onyekwelu gave the advice during the grand event organised for him by NMA, Anambra Chapter during the ongoing Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting.
Onyekwelu also blazoned his withdrawal from active NMA politics saying he would no longer run for any position but sit back and play premonitory part to younger ones.
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“I’ve reached my zenith, I’ll now be an elder statesman, giving advice to people, especially the younger ones.
“I feel humbled by this, when I set out to serve the NMA as the Secretary General, it was not with the view of having this type of reception” he said.
Onyekwelu said doctors are very essential because the nation’s healthcare delivery system would not work without them and called on the government to produce an enabling terrain for them to carry out their God- assigned part.
The former scribe called on governments to make public health insurance to cover everybody so that doctors could treat a case without fear that they would not be paid.
“Doctors should also realise that they’re humans, and thus can not play God. It’s God that gave us knowledge and wisdom to be suitable to save lives.
“Government should be suitable to give us with an enabling terrain to apply this gift in the service of humanity.
“We can not do this work under the terrain of instability, difficulty or hunger. Doctors should be able to buy and eat the type of food they’re recommending for patients.
“It has now been documented in our phusicians’ oath that doctors should take care of themselves first so they can be suitable to take care of other people” he said.
Onyekwelu appealed to members of the public demanding services of doctors
to dodge intimidation, assault and magpie arrest of doctors so they could do their job and decide joy and satisfaction from it.
“When a patient dies, the relations of patience would pounce on the doctor. Why will you kill a doctor because a patient died, God is the owner of life.
“We just released a young doctor from detention two days ago after spending 13 days in police cell because he lost a patient.
If nothing is not done, our doctors will continue to emigrate as they’re going now, and will put further pressure on the many of us around because the workload will increase that will lead to exhaustion.
“As patients overwhelm doctors, relations will start beating them and locking them up again for ‘mismanaging’ their patients” he said.
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