What’s the best time to see a doctor in a Nigerian teaching hospital or FMC?

• Share this article
• Share
• Copy

Nigeria’s teaching hospitals and federal medical centers (FMC) are tertiary health facilities that provide advanced medical services, specialized care, and high-level treatment that cannot be offered at primary or secondary levels.

Nigeria’s healthcare system is divided into:

• Primary healthcare: which is made up of primary health centres
• Secondary healthcare: which is made up of general hospitals
• Tertiary healthcare: which is made up of teaching hospitals, federal medical centers (FMC) and specialist hospitals

Examples of teaching hospitals include University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), University College Hospital Ibadan (UCH).

Examples of federal medical centres (FMC) include Federal Medical Centre Jabi, Federal Medical Centre Gombe, Federal Medical Centre Gusau.

The tertiary hospitals (teaching hospitals and federal medical centers) provide advanced care in specific medical fields such as obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology, neurology, pediatrics, plastic surgery and orthopedics.

These tertiary hospitals face challenges that sometimes lead to long waiting times, overcrowding, and difficulty or inability in accessing essential treatments.

People often find it difficult to navigate their way through these hospitals, especially those accessing them for the first time.

One of the challenges they face is knowing the right time to see a doctor for their health needs.

So, when is the right time to see a doctor?

People coming to these tertiary hospitals for the first time are either going to be seen at:

• Accident and Emergency department
• Outpatient clinics

Accident and Emergency (A&E): Here, doctors attend to emergencies that require immediate attention, as they involve life-threatening or critical conditions that could worsen quickly without prompt intervention.

The following are examples of emergencies:

• Road traffic accident
• Stab wound or gunshot injury
• Burns
• Sudden inability or difficulty in moving or speaking
• Unconsciousness
• Severe headache
• Difficulty breathing or breathlessness
• Broken bones (fracture)
• Head injury
• Serious chest pain
• Cut with severe bleeding
• Bleeding during pregnancy
• Vomiting blood

When should people go to Accident and Emergency? People with emergencies should go to the Accident and Emergency immediately, as it is open 24 hours a day, every day.

Outpatient clinics: Doctors attend to non-emergency conditions in clinics.

Most people are initially seen at the general outpatient clinics by family doctors.

These family doctors would either treat these people or refer them to specialist clinics if there is need.

These specialist clinics operate from Monday to Friday; they don’t work on the weekend.

Each of these clinics has a particular day(s) they attend to people, either once or twice a week.

Some examples of these specialist clinics include:

• Cardiology clinic
• Neurology clinic
• General surgery clinic
• Endocrinology clinic
• Plastic surgery clinic
• Pediatric clinic
• Gynaecology clinic
• Orthopedic clinic

People referred with a letter from another hospital to see a specialist need to book an appointment before the clinic day.

People who were admitted to the wards and have been discharged are often given follow-up appointments in the clinic.

It's best to arrive at the clinic for your appointment before 8 a.m.