Expert Wants More Urologists In Hospitals

Minister of Health, Dr Isaac Adewole (l), with the Minister of State, Dr Osagie Ehanire, During The First Annual Primary Health Care Service Lecture, in Abuja, yesterday.

A consultant urologist, Dr Ferdinand Nwamkpa, has decried the low number of urologists across the nation’s health facilities.
Nwamkpa, who explained that theurologists are the class of doctors or surgeons in charge of the surgery of the human urinary system including the kidney, urethra and others said there is a shortage in the number of these experts adding that such situation was responsible for several ailments to go undiagnosed.
He said Nigeria has only about 100 urologists to treat its population of over 170 million describing it as a hindrance to the way forward in the nation’s health sector.
Nwamkpa said, “some of the medical conditions diagnosed and treated by gynaecologists and other specialised areas were supposed to be treated by an urologists. Most times, when women marry and they cannot have children, they go to see gynaecologists who in some cases advised them to do an In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF).  But in some cases, if patients were to receive proper guidance, they should see a urologist for proper diagnosis and treatment of the ailment”.
The consultant urologist regretted  that some doctors do not know the right doctor to refer certain patients to noting that the reason may be that they may have attended a medical school where no urologist was present hence, did not know what a urologist did.
Nwamkpa stated that the challenge of practising urology in Nigeria was lack of training and insufficient equipment saying, “most government hospitals do not have the equipment to perform some of the surgeries.  When there is not enough equipment in hospitals, it makes it unattractive for patients to attend and when you do not have enough people to train, you do not also have enough people picking interest in that area”.
Nwamkpa further relealed that urology was not accredited in many teaching hospitals across the state which he said has been a source of discouragement to those wishing to go into the medical field.
“Urology is not accredited in many teaching hospitals because there are not  enough specialists in the area. You need to have at least four specialists in any hospital before that hospital can receive accreditation.  Since many hospitals do not have accreditation, a lot of doctors who may want to pick interest in the area get discouraged and choose other areas”.
He noted that the FCT and Lagos have the highest concentration of urologists in Nigeria with 10 currently practising in each state.
Aslo, a Surgeon, Dr Hanson Usende, who confirmed the shortage of urologists in the sector noted that urology was highly technological stating however that there are a few of them at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) and Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH).

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