‘Family Medicine can Guarantee Decreased Mortality Rate’

The Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria (SOFPON) and its sister body, the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN) has stated that only Family Medicine can truly guarantee the reduction of mortality rate in the country as family physicians were more closer to the people than other specialties in medicine.

Speaking on behalf of the groups during their joint press conference to mark the World Family Doctors Day, held in Lagos recently, the Vice Chairman, SOFPON, Lagos zone, Dr. Ayaode Adedokun, stated that the importance of family medicine to actualising the country’s target in delivering world standard healthcare to Nigerians cannot be overemphasized.

He said the mortality rate in the country would improve if all primary health centres in the country were manned by family physicians.

According to him, there are only about 400 family physicians in the country, which he noted were not enough to cater for the over 80 per cent of patients in the country who patronise private health facilities and primary health centres.

“About 80 per cent of health issues in the country are been solved by private health facilities and primary health centres and it is only the family physicians that can attend to these 80 per cent of patients in the country.

“Most people do not allow their wives to deliver in primary health centres because they believe there are no family physicians in such centres. And some patients would rather travel several hours to cities just to get healthcare because they know that the primary health centres in their rural areas do not have family physicians who can attend to them,” he added.

Adedokun, who also raised the alarm that mortality rate in the country was increasing despite several trainings being given to health professionals, explained that a recent research suggests that reduction of mortality rate was not mainly in relation to how many health professionals were being trained but that it was more dependent on how many family physicians were available.

“In most countries abroad, only one in every 1000 or one in 3,000 pregnant women die during childbirth. But in Nigeria, one in every 16 persons is at risk of death and this is due to our poor healthcare, unavailability of proper health facilities, as well as untrained personnel, especially lack of family physicians,” he said.

He also explained that at present, a child under five dies every two minutes in Sub-sahara Africa, including Nigeria, because stakeholders were neglecting the real specialty that could curb the menace.

He called on the government to give priority to the training of family physicians in the country, while also encouraging young doctors to specialise in family medicine as they are the closest health professionals to families and patients.

Also speaking at the event, the Chairman, AGPMPN, Lagos State chapter, Dr. Jimmy Arigbabuwo, explained that currently, Nigeria has only 9,000 doctors serving over 160million people.

Giving the breakdown, he explained that the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN has in its register 65,000 doctors, out of which, 40,000 were practicing in Diaspora and that out of the 25,000 doctors currently practicing in the country, 16,000 were resident doctors who may decide to leave at the completion of their training, leaving the country with only 9,000 doctors.

He said even with the 25,000 doctors which includes the resident doctors, the distribution was unfavourable to Nigerians in the rural communities as majority of the doctors concentrated in the urban areas where the rich who could afford medical tourism resides.

Further decrying the limitations of most of the public facilities in some of the rural areas, he advocated that the government allowed those facilities to be manned by family physicians in order to guarantee better healthcare delivery for those Nigerians who cannot afford overseas treatments.

Explaining the importance of family physicians in healthcare delivery, he said: “The Family Physician is the family doctor, first contact, gate keeper who attends to most of the common ailments of the end user of healthcare and is the custodian of primary care medical practice.”

After the media parley, the groups then embarked on free medical mission to Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, where hundreds of residents undergone various testings, including blood pressure check and malaria testing.