Emergency patients: Fix hospitals before punishing health workers - NMA tells NASS

The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has rejected a legislative proposal by the National Assembly to impose fines and imprisonment on healthcare workers who reject emergency patients, urging lawmakers to compel governments to fix hospitals before enacting such laws.

The president of the association, Prof. Afekhide Ernest Omoti, who stated this in a statement made available to journalists in Benin City on Thursday, November 5, 2026, described the proposed sanctions as unjust.

Omoti, however, called on the National Assembly to hold governments accountable for failing to provide the resources, infrastructure and enabling environment required for effective emergency medical services.

He urged lawmakers to address the systemic challenges confronting the country's healthcare sector rather than introduce punitive measures against health professionals.

He noted that the National Health Act, NHA, had already provided a legal framework for protecting patients requiring emergency medical treatment, stressing that existing provisions prohibit the refusal of emergency care.

He said it was fundamentally unfair to impose criminal liability on healthcare workers and hospitals for failing to provide services when governments had not fulfilled their responsibility to provide the necessary resources and enabling environment.

The NMA president said the critical question was not necessarily the absence of legislation but the failure to implement existing provisions and create the enabling environment for their effective execution.

"Of particular importance is Section 6 of the National Health Act, which establishes the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, BHCPF, and provides for the funding of emergency medical treatment.

"This provision recognises that emergency care requires financial support and that healthcare facilities must not be left to bear the cost of providing such services without appropriate reimbursement," he said.

Omoti lamented that the implementation of the BHCPF remained inadequate, leaving hospitals and healthcare facilities that provide emergency treatment to bear considerable financial costs without the expected refunds or reimbursement.

"This creates an unsustainable situation in which hospitals are expected to provide emergency care without the necessary financial support," he added.

He further identified the shortage of doctors and other healthcare professionals as a major challenge confronting the country's healthcare system.

He attributed the situation to poor remuneration, unfavourable working conditions, inadequate infrastructure, insecurity, excessive workloads and the general lack of an enabling professional environment.

According to him, these challenges have contributed to the alarming migration of Nigerian doctors and nurses to other countries, including neighbouring African countries where conditions of service are increasingly attractive.

"Our hospitals are consequently operating with dangerously inadequate manpower. In several facilities, the few available doctors are expected to manage overwhelming patient loads, sometimes under extremely difficult circumstances and without adequate support," he stated.

The NMA president also decried the deplorable state of infrastructure and persistent shortage of essential medical supplies across hospitals in the country.

He listed oxygen, essential drugs, blood and blood products, resuscitation equipment, medical consumables, functional ambulances and other life-saving facilities as basic emergency-care requirements that are not readily available in many healthcare institutions.

He questioned how doctors could be expected to provide emergency treatment when hospitals lacked the basic equipment and supplies needed to save lives.

"How can we reasonably expect a doctor to provide emergency care when the hospital lacks the basic equipment, drugs and consumables required to save a life?

"How can we threaten health workers with imprisonment for circumstances that are substantially beyond their control?" he queried.

He advised the National Assembly to address the fundamental deficiencies in the healthcare system rather than introduce punitive measures that could further demoralise an already distressed workforce.

He also urged the Senate to reconsider the proposed amendment in its present form and redirect its legislative efforts towards addressing the challenges undermining emergency healthcare delivery in Nigeria.

Emergency patients: Fix hospitals before punishing health workers - NMA tells NASS