By Muhammad Sani Muazu
A medical expert, Dr. Muhammad Abubakar Sadiq, has called on residents to change their attitudes towards health-seeking behaviour by visiting hospitals early whenever they experience health challenges.
Speaking as a guest on Albarka Radio Bauchi’s health talk program, Gatarin Gwari, Dr. Sadiq emphasized the importance of timely medical consultation, stressing that delays often worsen conditions that could have been easily treated.
He urged patients to exercise patience when dealing with health workers, explaining that medical personnel are often overworked, which may sometimes cause delays in service delivery.
The physician also dismissed the widespread belief that some ailments, particularly those believed to be linked to supernatural forces such as Jinn, cannot be treated in hospitals. According to him, all forms of sickness should be reported to health facilities for professional guidance and management.
On the challenges posed by poverty, which hinders many people from accessing hospital care, Dr. Sadiq encouraged the public to subscribe to health insurance schemes, which he described as a sustainable way of addressing financial barriers to healthcare.
He further appealed to government authorities to provide access roads to rural communities, saying such infrastructure will significantly improve healthcare access and reduce avoidable deaths in hard-to-reach areas.