"We must not let anyone else write our future.”
(Dr. Ronald Hopping, President, American Optometric Association, June 2012.)
The practice of Optometry in Nigeria is without doubt improving into a medical care service especially in private health care setting and in eye hospitals despite the host of challenges that confronts us.
For instance the average MBBs physician keeps flinching at any association of Optometrist as "Doctors"! It is not only those MBBs members that gets all goose-pimpled at associating the Optometrist with "doctor"! Some ignorant nurses and allied health workers find it very difficult refer us as such.
But who is a "Doctor"?
1) A licensed medical practitioner who administers treatment for the benefit of ameliorating symptoms, managing signs by applying "professional" judgement.
2) A PhD holder in any academic field.
Does it matter whether we are called a Doctor? Or does it benefit more to develop in proficiency? Do we claim what we are not? That is by the way.
In a bid to checkmate the influx of Optometrists into the health care mainstream, efforts have been on top gear to discredit our role via propaganda and systematic cutting off of funding (the "call duty" phenomenon) by the government and our "Head of Departments". But do we really need the government before we stick to our ethics? Do we really need mainstream government to have a reviewable, current & water-tight code of conduct that mirrors professional practices internationally?
In other to play dirty, some Optometrists in Nigeria are gripping hard on each others jugular veins in a vice-like manner. Like two elephant in a brawl, the helpless grass (the at-risk populace) have been left to bear the blunt providing quacks the opportunity to operate with ease!
It is no longer news that most ophthalmic nurses are today parading themselves as "eye doctors" to fleece victims of money and dishing out blindness. Also on record are so many of these "orthodox" eye doctors, diploma Ophthalmologists etc who junket the country doing the opposite of vision 2020!
Quackery is when we do not adhere to what we profess!
Quackery is when we do not adhere to what we profess!
a) A matured cataract patient was recently "couched" by such doctors and this man's eye today is worse off with pigmentary glaucoma and NLP (No Light Perception).
b) A bifocal reading glass given to a child of 16 years with myopia and against the rule astigmatism.
c) A topical steroid prescribed by a nurse for a "red eye" secondary to angle closure glaucoma.
d) Practicing without a license.
f) Poor adherence to ethics of practice.
g) Lack of compliance to Optometric code of conduct
h) Poor acquisition of professional continuing education & competency
i) Snail-speed update of our current school curricular, scope of practices etc...
g) Lack of compliance to Optometric code of conduct
h) Poor acquisition of professional continuing education & competency
i) Snail-speed update of our current school curricular, scope of practices etc...
They are but few of the travesty orchestrated by quacks in the practice.
I have not seen any health care profession than the eye care sector that has been so infested by quackery courtesy of the "silent" imbroglio between Optometrists and Opticians on one hand and the entire NMA (Nigerian Medical Association) & Ophthalmologists on the other hand.
In a bid to get at the primary eye care practitioners, NMA, Ophthalmologists have variously cooked up spurious and fabricated propaganda aimed at slandering us or belittling us. They go to such low levels as to blocking our growth in area of competency! Why is residency in Optometry as seen in MBBs here in Nigeria not been approved? They are everywhere, at the National Assembly, in health Ministries, in politics as politicians painting us as parasites (as recently portrayed by a medical doctor in my place of practice!)... Did the recent strike embarked by Nigerian health workers ring a bell? The manner in which they were frustrated? The ease in which those super human "NMA" board disgraced their efforts to make it look like they are not supposed to have a say! Until their bubble is burst, we will be seeing these actions repeat itself over and again in the coming days and in the future.
In the Nigerian health care system they call the shots because they are always elected head of health ministry, from the minister of health to even health departments in local hospitals! They command the money, as we all know where the money goes so too does authority! They are on course to asphyxiate Optometry at all cost, hence the few Ophthalmologists in their folds are doing their dirty jobs for them.
They spew out half-baked Ophthalmic nurses, ship them off to practically all state and federal hospitals in every location in Nigeria to replace Optometrists as primary eye care providers! It may sound incredible, but it happens right in front of us! When we (Optometrists) started agitating especially through our serving corps members, they gave us few slots and ensured that many of us are disgraced out of the milk cow! They came with the rebellious call duty allowance, then with other flimsiness that includes our lack of surgery skills etc As if that was not enough, they have encouraged all sorts of impunity in eye care profession such that today, eye care examinations are equated as freebies by politicians to win elections!
And you know what? We follow those crumbs were ever it takes us to the detriment of our profession. Indirectly, shop owners have seen the "illegality" as an avenue to sale their over the counter reading glasses & the "patient" or "victim" sees little difference in patronizing the "quack", who often gives out their product for much lower prices than the professionals! By the way, they will say: "Is it not that same glass they gave me when so & so politician or philanthropist organized "free eye test" for us & even without even testing my eyes I was given a reading glasses?" "Therefore I can easily get a reading glass like that one in a shop!"" They conclude.
"Quacks" have gone ahead to indulge in harmful ocular surgery practices because of the overwhelming number of persons blind as a result of cataract and other conditions like Glaucoma, retinopathies etc
Why won't it be like that, on record in Borno state Specialist Eye centre are some Ophthalmic nurses who perform cataract extraction without license to do so, just because Ophthalmologists are using them to get at us! Ophthalmologists prefer "training" them to help them (the Ophthalmologists) in the theaters while undermining our position in pre- & post-cataract co-management of such patients! Little wonder most victims do not know they are going to slaughter like lambs and like sheep they do not complain until their eyes get compromised!
On the part of Optometrists, we do not strictly adhere to our codes of conduct! We practice often times without understanding our oath of practice. Ethics? Even fewer commit to them. We need to become stricter and more serious in combating such criminality, as well as build ourselves into the colossus our founding fathers dreamed for us!
An after thought...
Earlier today in our, "Optometrists Lounge" Facebook page an update drew my attention to some major issues hitting us directly in our faces:
1) Discrimination in payment parity with members of the NMA (Nigerian Medical Authority) in Hospitals- Government and Private.
2) Headship disparity especially as in departmental heads in hospital, private or public with the consequence of favoring their group more than others.
3) Finally, the contentious CAP 463 Act establishing the "University Teaching Hospital Act" which overtly skews in favor of the medical doctors, for instance in the provision for the members that make up the "Board" in Cap 463 LFN Section 2, Sub (1) a-j; unduly favored the members of NMA than other post-graduate trainable professionals like Optometrists as in (a), (d), (g)!
Could it be the reason why residency in optometry in Nigeria is still an uphill 4-year task in isolated universities without the backing of Government?
Just a morally laden rhetoric question though...
4) The term "Consultant" as an exclusive right of the NMA members as put forth in their recommendations to the FG in health care reform number (1.20).
5) In number (1.23) of their (NMA) recommendations in the FG's Health reform act, they pointed out the lack of need for post-graduate programs akin to Residency in medicine to Optometrist!
Definitely a pattern is being perfected here and we cannot afford to just fold hand and let the implosion gets complete.
We need to curtail such impunity because it is doing the health care arena no good.
Optometrists are primary health care providers and as such should not be lumped together as mere dispensable or collateral damage in the health care community. They need that degree of "freedom" to practice whether in the private or public sector such that they can perform efficiently.
We have a choice to make...
1) That as a body-ODORBN- ,we, should get our acts right by infusing confidence in our students through re-visitation of our academic curricular to embrace the realities of 21st century Primary eye care providers.
2) We should buy over the at-risk populace over with our people-oriented eye care services such that "quacks" will not find a safe haven to operate.
3) We need to research, form very strong advocacy groups, encourage international Optometric bodies to partner locally with us and invest deeply in eye care if we want this rape of our collective efforts in the eye care sector not become a spite to our individual abilities.
4) We should revisit our code of conducts, add vigor to our ethics and bridge the gap with other health care practitioners such that the second fiddle rating we are subjected to is recanted. We can do better.
A stitch in time save nine!
I have not seen any health care profession than the eye care sector that has been so infested by quackery courtesy of the "silent" imbroglio between Optometrists and Opticians on one hand and the entire NMA (Nigerian Medical Association) & Ophthalmologists on the other hand.
In a bid to get at the primary eye care practitioners, NMA, Ophthalmologists have variously cooked up spurious and fabricated propaganda aimed at slandering us or belittling us. They go to such low levels as to blocking our growth in area of competency! Why is residency in Optometry as seen in MBBs here in Nigeria not been approved? They are everywhere, at the National Assembly, in health Ministries, in politics as politicians painting us as parasites (as recently portrayed by a medical doctor in my place of practice!)... Did the recent strike embarked by Nigerian health workers ring a bell? The manner in which they were frustrated? The ease in which those super human "NMA" board disgraced their efforts to make it look like they are not supposed to have a say! Until their bubble is burst, we will be seeing these actions repeat itself over and again in the coming days and in the future.
In the Nigerian health care system they call the shots because they are always elected head of health ministry, from the minister of health to even health departments in local hospitals! They command the money, as we all know where the money goes so too does authority! They are on course to asphyxiate Optometry at all cost, hence the few Ophthalmologists in their folds are doing their dirty jobs for them.
They spew out half-baked Ophthalmic nurses, ship them off to practically all state and federal hospitals in every location in Nigeria to replace Optometrists as primary eye care providers! It may sound incredible, but it happens right in front of us! When we (Optometrists) started agitating especially through our serving corps members, they gave us few slots and ensured that many of us are disgraced out of the milk cow! They came with the rebellious call duty allowance, then with other flimsiness that includes our lack of surgery skills etc As if that was not enough, they have encouraged all sorts of impunity in eye care profession such that today, eye care examinations are equated as freebies by politicians to win elections!
And you know what? We follow those crumbs were ever it takes us to the detriment of our profession. Indirectly, shop owners have seen the "illegality" as an avenue to sale their over the counter reading glasses & the "patient" or "victim" sees little difference in patronizing the "quack", who often gives out their product for much lower prices than the professionals! By the way, they will say: "Is it not that same glass they gave me when so & so politician or philanthropist organized "free eye test" for us & even without even testing my eyes I was given a reading glasses?" "Therefore I can easily get a reading glass like that one in a shop!"" They conclude.
"Quacks" have gone ahead to indulge in harmful ocular surgery practices because of the overwhelming number of persons blind as a result of cataract and other conditions like Glaucoma, retinopathies etc
Why won't it be like that, on record in Borno state Specialist Eye centre are some Ophthalmic nurses who perform cataract extraction without license to do so, just because Ophthalmologists are using them to get at us! Ophthalmologists prefer "training" them to help them (the Ophthalmologists) in the theaters while undermining our position in pre- & post-cataract co-management of such patients! Little wonder most victims do not know they are going to slaughter like lambs and like sheep they do not complain until their eyes get compromised!
On the part of Optometrists, we do not strictly adhere to our codes of conduct! We practice often times without understanding our oath of practice. Ethics? Even fewer commit to them. We need to become stricter and more serious in combating such criminality, as well as build ourselves into the colossus our founding fathers dreamed for us!
An after thought...
Earlier today in our, "Optometrists Lounge" Facebook page an update drew my attention to some major issues hitting us directly in our faces:
1) Discrimination in payment parity with members of the NMA (Nigerian Medical Authority) in Hospitals- Government and Private.
2) Headship disparity especially as in departmental heads in hospital, private or public with the consequence of favoring their group more than others.
3) Finally, the contentious CAP 463 Act establishing the "University Teaching Hospital Act" which overtly skews in favor of the medical doctors, for instance in the provision for the members that make up the "Board" in Cap 463 LFN Section 2, Sub (1) a-j; unduly favored the members of NMA than other post-graduate trainable professionals like Optometrists as in (a), (d), (g)!
Could it be the reason why residency in optometry in Nigeria is still an uphill 4-year task in isolated universities without the backing of Government?
Just a morally laden rhetoric question though...
4) The term "Consultant" as an exclusive right of the NMA members as put forth in their recommendations to the FG in health care reform number (1.20).
5) In number (1.23) of their (NMA) recommendations in the FG's Health reform act, they pointed out the lack of need for post-graduate programs akin to Residency in medicine to Optometrist!
Definitely a pattern is being perfected here and we cannot afford to just fold hand and let the implosion gets complete.
We need to curtail such impunity because it is doing the health care arena no good.
Optometrists are primary health care providers and as such should not be lumped together as mere dispensable or collateral damage in the health care community. They need that degree of "freedom" to practice whether in the private or public sector such that they can perform efficiently.
We have a choice to make...
1) That as a body-ODORBN- ,we, should get our acts right by infusing confidence in our students through re-visitation of our academic curricular to embrace the realities of 21st century Primary eye care providers.
2) We should buy over the at-risk populace over with our people-oriented eye care services such that "quacks" will not find a safe haven to operate.
3) We need to research, form very strong advocacy groups, encourage international Optometric bodies to partner locally with us and invest deeply in eye care if we want this rape of our collective efforts in the eye care sector not become a spite to our individual abilities.
4) We should revisit our code of conducts, add vigor to our ethics and bridge the gap with other health care practitioners such that the second fiddle rating we are subjected to is recanted. We can do better.
A stitch in time save nine!
