Clinical Sociological Analysis Of The Issues and Challenges To Healthcare Delivery In Nigeria Today

Clinical Sociological Analysis Of The Issues And Challenges To Healthcare Delivery In Nigeria Today By Abdul-Mumin Sa'ad Professor of sociology (Criminology) Provost, Federal College of Education, Yola, Nigeria And Ruth Bulus Iganus Medical Sociologist, Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria Abstract Health care delivery refers to the work done in providing primary care, secondary care and tertiary care, as well as in public health. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers such as medical social workers, clinical sociologists, etc. Constitutionally, health care provision in Nigeria is a concurrent responsibility of the three tiers of government. However, private providers of health play a visible role in the country's health care delivery. The federal government's role is mostly limited to coordinating the affairs of the tertiary health care (university teaching hospitals, Federal Medical Centres) while the state government manages the secondary health care (the various general hospitals) and the local government focuses on primary health care (dispensaries). In spite of this clear constitutional provision there are myriad of challenges regarding healthcare delivery in Nigeria. Of course health issues have always been issues that nations grapple with. Added to this is the fact that natural and manmade disasters are becoming frequent, catastrophic and unpredictable and these are posing great challenges to healthcare delivery. Nigeria, being an underdeveloped nation is even more vulnerable to these challenges. This paper therefore identifies and discusses those challenges and proffer solutions to them from clinical sociological perspective with a focus on the need and strategies for active collaboration of all stakeholders (especially the Clinical sociologists, healthcare professionals, the government, the organized private sectors and the society generally) to effectively surmount the challenges.