National Assembly and the Proposed NCR Bill

JOHESU and her affiliate bodies introduced the phrase ‘international best practices’ in our health sector the same way late Murtala Ramat Muhammed introduced the phrase ‘My Fellow Countrymen’ to our presidential speeches. By such introduction, they want everything obtainable outside the country to be replicated here. Contrary to our expectations, it is now getting clearer that their own type of democracy does not work when they are losing. I have read what many radiographers have written against the proposed bill that has passed second reading in the National Assembly, the recent being the joint communique by radiographers in Lagos. They raised so many specious points that could easily sway gullible and subjective minds to their side.

I always ask myself pertinent questions if professionals that register their businesses with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) don’t have their own regulatory agencies/bodies. What of the different specialties of engineering profession that are under COREN (Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria)? Don’t they have their own individual regulatory boards? The truth the radiographers will never tell Nigerians is that the proposed bill will bring sanity and totally eliminate quackery in the field of our radiology and radiation medicine. Quackery is not only limited to non-professionals parading themselves as professionals, it equally involves professionals claiming what they are not. When a radiographer claims to be and practices as a radiologist, that is another form of quackery. Today, everybody in the health sector parades themselves as doctors because they are aware that with the high illiteracy level in the country, the title ‘doctor’, especially in the health sector, metonymically means a medical doctor. Why will radiographers want a bill that will ensure that they are addressed as radiographers while the specialist medical doctors in the field will be addressed as radiologists? They still want to exploit the illiteracy of the Nigerian patients and still practice and parade themselves as radiologists. The next thing is to rush to the court and tell the court that radiologists want to usurp their positions and they will never tell the court that bill is meant to harmonise the sub-sector.

This communique reminds me of our childhood experiences. Whenever any of us spoilt any of our home appliances, when our parents came back to ask who spoilt the gadget, the culprit would be the first person to deny and where necessary would accuse other siblings in order to shift attention. That ‘inspiration’ normally came naturally but our experienced parents knew how to single out the culprit and surprisingly confession would be made at the end of the day .Thereafter appropriate punitive measures would be meted out to the offender. Why are they raising false alarm when JOHESU and her affiliate bodies have been the ones shouting that we should all work as a team? How can we work as a team when we refuse to come together to define our roles? I seem not to understand the term ‘team’ as used by JOHESU and her allies because we have been working as a team unless there is another meaning attached to their own concept of a team. If to work as a team, you expect the doctor to work as a cleaner or porter, that ill-conceived team will, of course, not see the light of the day. I want to let all Nigerians know through this publication that the people claiming that we should work as a team are now the ones saying that we should not belong to regulated team where our roles will be clearly defined as it is obtainable elsewhere in the world.

In the UK, we have British Institute of Radiology (BIR) that offers membership to radiologists, radiographers, medical physicists, radiotherapists, oncologists and companies working in the field of radiology. Has BIR prevented or eliminated the different regulatory bodies of her members? Dr. Paul John, Port Harcourt