New Fellows at LUTH urged to abide by physicians’ oath

As part of campaigning for a better health care delivery in the country, the Provost, College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), Prof. Folashade Ogunsola, on Tuesday urged new Fellows of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), to abide by and remember at all times the physicians’ oath they took, no matter the circumstances.

Ogunsola who said this at a Luncheon organized to celebrate the New Fellows by LUTH management in Lagos pointed out that, “though we also need to survive, but sometimes our need to survive is put before our need to serve, and that is not good enough.”

She explained; “Irrespective of how government treats us, our need to serve must supersede because of the physician’s oath we took, the ort was made by you and not by the institution.”

“We all decry the fact we lost glory, the reason we had the glory was because we put patients before ourselves, but the moment we started putting ourselves before patients, we lost it.”

According to her, the Nigerian climate is tough, so they should not expect it all rosy out there, “it is not going to be easy as you want it,” she added.

The CMUL Provost further said, “Am not saying doctors should not pursue survival, but we should not in that pursuit forget that somebody might die.”

“So no matter who we are fighting, those who might die in the cause must be taken care of, even if we are not giving them treatment, we honestly have no right not to treat those whose lives are at stake until the issues are sorted out, I do not think anyone can be forgiven for that,” she noted.

She however identified lack of communication and management of people as major challenges, and advised the new fellows to either be disbanded or to get creative, “each one of you have been well trained, you might not have all the technological know how, but I know you are smart.”

Speaking with the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Dr. Olufemi Fasonade, he said, “It takes six years to produce a fellow and this number, 44, you are seeing have come out of thousands that applied to join the programme. It is a very rigorous and robust programme, that can be compared to any of its kind in the world.”