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…As drugs prices skyrocket, many now out of reach
• Hospitals, patients, pharmacists groan, fight for survival
By Cosmas Omegoh
Are crises looming in the healthcare sector at the moment? The answer is in the affirmative. And there are chances that such crises are in the multiple, as indications suggest. That is the reality before everyone, although many are yet to realise it until they fall sick.
Now, take a walk down the road; stroll into that next-door pharmacy shop. Then ask the pharmacy attendants about the price of the drug you purchased the last time, about three months ago. The price must have changed unarguably considerably. Its current price tag is sure to send you screaming in shock.
And then walk into a hospital in that neigbourhood and ask to be treated for that minor ailment. You will be dazed by the bill you will be handed down afterwards.
The reality right now is that most people who have one thing or the other to do with the healthcare sector is groaning and lamenting. Every patient currently weaving in and out of hospital at the moment in search of wellness is complaining.
Just as it is in many other sectors of the economy, so it is in the drug industry where things are particularly steadily falling apart.
Now, here is what a recent Sunday Sun investigation revealed: those in the drug supply chain are bitterly complaining that their customers now can hardly afford the prices of drugs.
Health workers on their part are worried that only a handful of their patients are becoming barely able to pay for their hospital bills. The former are feeling embittered, fearing that their facilities might collapse with time as a result of lack of patronage, revenue and job losses.
Now, experts fear that patients might be becoming sicker. Because of sharp increases in the cost of drugs and hospital bills, a lot more people might either be resorting to self medication when they are ill, or falling back to the traditional way of treating themselves.
However, a healthcare expert, Dr Abayomi Ogunbekun, believes that the situation will ease off with time. But for now, his fears are definite: that in the interim, the current regime might result to “high morbidity and high mortality.”
He said that if the situation persists, many more people might begin to fall sick more easily and then die.
Analysts insisted that the current hardship in the country and people’s inability to meet up with their needs, are coming on the margin of sweeping policies recently introduced by the current central administration.
Following, for instance, the “subsidy is gone,” declaration by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his inauguration speech, petrol prices is now hovering between N500 and N700 depending on one’s location, up from N185. Consequently, a considerable number of people are now spending far more of their income buying fuel and paying transport fares. The latter had soared highly on every route lately. Therefore, transportation is now taking out a large chunk of people’s earnings.
Besides, the recent merger of the official and parallel foreign exchange windows is seeing the Naira exchanging well above N800 with the dollar – a move experts suggest has forced a devaluation of the local currency. That is already driving prices of goods and services to the sky.
Then, there is also the hike in electricity tariff. Consumers are now forced to pay higher amounts for the electricity them consume.
Those who know insist the government’s recent policies are pushing up price and forcing the ordinary persons into multi-dimensional poverty. That most people now care much more about what to eat than anything else, with concern about their health taking the backburner – because they can no longer afford the high cost of drugs and hospital bills as much as they used to in the recent past.
Drug prices on the rise
While reflecting on the ongoing trend, a community pharmacist, Mr Damian Izuka, described the current soar-away prices of drugs in the Nigerian market as worrisome.
“We are in a moment of inflation. The price of everything now is going up; since the price of every commodity is rising, those of drugs will not be an exception. That is pure elementary economics,” he explained.
While maintaining that his colleagues in the industry are not to be blamed, he said: “The increases in the prices of drugs are not the making of any pharmacist or drugs supplier. Not at all! It is brought about by the reality of the economic situation we now face.
“Everyone knows that the cost of the dollar to the naria is up there in the clouds. And now, it is inching towards the N900 mark, with clear indication for everyone to see that towards the end of the year, it will hit N1,000. Everything seems to be heading up to the sky. Therefore, what will happen is that because we are majorly a consuming nation, prices will continue to go up until we realise the need to look inwards and do what other nations who are doing well are doing. Unless we do that, inflation will continue to bite harder.”
Fears over cost of drugs
Izuka who is a Fellow of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) is unhappy that the country might be headed for the untoward if nothing is done soon to address the rising cost of drugs.
He said: “I have this fear that what we are in now might snowball into a big crisis.
“To be honest with you, drugs are not luxury products. They are products related to wellness.
“You are sick, you are not feeling fine. Then you go for drugs; they kick in to challenge the illness and you are well again.
“Now, when the prices of those drugs go up and become unreachable to the ordinary person, I cannot imagine what will happen next.
“To tell you the truth, I pity the ordinary man in this country. I imagine the fate of the poor who will be needing drugs at such high prices. Everyone needs drugs to get well. If, therefore, they become not affordable, it will be very bitter, very unpleasant.”
Another community-based pharmacist in Lagos, Nike Abioye, also lamented the rising cost of drugs in the market.
She too revealed that some drugs which used to be fairly affordable earlier were no longer so.
“The last time I went to restock our outlet, the prices I was hearing surprised me; when I asked for (a certain antibiotic), I was told its recent retail price had hit N19,000 per pack.
“I wondered who on earth would buy it off the shelf if I purchased it.
“It was better I bought other lesser drugs which the people could afford than to tie such huge amount of money on a product no one would be ready to touch with a long pole.”
Patients lament drug cost
Also lamenting, Mr Tolu Olajire recalled that he was stunned by the high cost of drugs he was asked to purchase after a visit to a General Hospital in Lagos, stating: “We are seeing the worst of times.
“My son was having this illness which we kept treating at home; we kept buying drugs from the local shop in our area, but they couldn’t cure him.
“When we eventually visited the General Hospital, the doctor wrote drugs for him some of which we were to purchase because they didn’t have them all at the hospital pharmacy.
“I was only able to buy the quantity the money I had could fetch so that he could start taking until I could buy more.”
Olajire said that he only had to take his child to the hospital because he felt that his ailment was attaining the level that could not be managed at home.
“For me, local concoction (agbo) is the answer. It is either I buy the cooked stuff from the local vendor or I source the leaves and roots by myself, cook and drink.”
Then he asked: “With the high cost of hospital bills and drugs nowadays, how can we cope?”
In like manner, Mrs Agbo, a resident of Isheri-Oshun, Lagos, told our correspondent that her family and many others in her neigbourhood now depend on the services of a retired nurse in their area for treatment.
“She is our own doctor in this area – our saving grace – popular and kind too.
“Many families depend on her for their wellness.
“The hospitals in this area are very expensive. If not her, I wonder how many will be surviving this hard times.”
Drug cost impact on treatment, hospitals
Dr Ogunbekun who works for Hoarse Memorial Methodist Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, recalled that the ongoing drug crisis in the country was hitting the hospitals.
“Indeed, drugs are very, very expensive these days. The cost of things has gone up astronomically.
“But we have continued to cope.”
Dr Abayomi who is the chairman of Christian Health Association of Nigeria (CHAN), Lagos State chapter, admitted that “the true situation now is that the practice of medicine is beginning to encounter hiccups. People no longer have money to pay for their medical bills.
“Right now, our staff are demanding pay rise. Many are running away, going abroad for greener pastures. Those who are still around, if you don’t give them a better package they walk away.
“Indeed, the cost of medical treatment is skyrocketing. Now, many increasingly can’t afford it. If you charge the way things are, not many will be able to pay except the billionaires in our midst.
“Now, if we insist on charging highly, we will end up scaring away our patients. Yet, we need to stay afloat to be able to pay our staff’s salaries.”
Dr Ogunbekun affirmed that “things are really terrible in Nigerian now. The cost of transportation alone is consuming above 80 per cent of staff’s pay. What do they do with the rest 20 per cent?”
Implication of trend for patients
Continuing, Dr Ogunbekun expressed fear that the average patients’ inability to access healthcare might mount bigger crisis for the country in the days ahead.
“The situation is sure to promote quackery. This will further lead to complications and damage to patients’ vital organs. Bigger diseases will then follow.
“We are likely going to see people with hypertension being unable to eat well let alone buy their drugs. We might likely see people dying of hypertension-related diseases, stroke and diabetes. People with asthma too will be at risk.
“I see people getting sicker and sicker; more people will go from acute to chronic conditions and eventually die. The number of deaths will then increase.”
How hospitals are coping
Dr Ogunbekun also revealed that most hospitals as a way of coping with the challenges are adopting a number of critical measures.
He said: “What we are doing now is to invent coping skills.
“Some hospitals I know are having regular engagements with their staff. They know what we generate. And we don’t want to sack anyone.
“In our situation, we cannot tell our staff to stay at home or come to work twice a week. That’s not possible. Medical practice doesn’t work that way. People must be on duty 24 hours of the day. We must have the barest minimum number of staff to operate.”
Talking about how they manage their patients, he said: “We now negotiate our bills with our patients. We have to; we now give discounts.
“Imagine how patients used to complain in the past. You can imagine how they are complaining now that the economy is looking worse.
“So, what we do now is to tell our patients the cost of our drugs. Then we play with our consultation fees, bed fees, and professional fees; we have to cut back on all that, but not on the cost of our drugs, because we must buy those drugs back, same for laboratory materials.
“If we don’t do what we are doing, we will be scaring away our patients; if they don’t come to us, how do we sustain our services?”
Optimism things will change
However, Dr Ogunbekun is upbeat that things will turn around. He believes the economy will improve if the government stays committed to improving the situation on ground.
“This economy has to change. Things have to improve. I believe with what the government is doing now, in a matter of time things will change.
“If the government will channel the resources it said it has saved so far to more productive ventures, things will turn out differently. I believe that.”
Advice to the government
Izuka believes that the government needs to kick in now to stave off the fledging drug crisis.
“It is my honest wish that the government should act fast in the best possible way to curb this current situation.
“The way it is trending, I’m sure that not long from now, many of the common drugs in the market will be very difficult to purchase.
“One of the things that ought be done now by the government is to exempt drugs from the kind of duties placed on medicament and medical devices. That way, they can be made more affordable.
“It is unfortunate that because of our kind of system, those who have the privilege of being in charge seem to know it all. Whatever they chose to do is what they go ahead to do. They don’t listen to anybody.
“The big men up there will always jet out to get the best attention overseas and upon their return, turn around to ask the rest of us to tighten our belts.
“But the fact remains that drugs are not items you allow to go to the level where the ordinary man will not be able afford them.
“So, one of the best things to do now ought to be to ensure that the suggested palliatives by the government be extended to the health sector to help it to survive.
“There must be subsidy extension to the drugs sector otherwise there will be bigger crisis,” he said.
