The idea of a compulsory checkup feels strange, especially in a community or a place like Nigeria, here, even a free medical checkup is a battle. People often think, going for medical checkups is not just time wasting but also might hive them high blood pressure since they believe you can't go for a medical checkup without they(health practitioners) seeing something wrong with health. But to really think it through, if it becomes a law and skipping checkups could land one in jail or lead to one pay an hefty sum.
Being someone who has experienced medical challenges, I know how important medical checkup is, we will always complain of money but when it(sickness) eventually take it toll on us, we run helter skelter so as not to lose a life. Am sure by the time such will be implemented into law, the country would have been a more better one especially economically. Back to the discussion.
First of all, the truth is, people here don't like anything hospital, if you just made mention of a hospital or to go for a checkup you start hearing different things like "I rebuke bad thing", its not my portion"..... and all sort of things. They do feel like it is going to the hospital that will invite whatever ailment into their systems, and also the fear of bad news. So, the idea of making this a "must do" will cause some issues.
Someone, very close to my mum died some days ago, they found out she had heart related problem late, and before they could start the various test and xrays and scans, it was too late already, hospitals kept transferring her to different places, she had been noticing since a long time according to her, but she felt she just needed to rest and its not something serious, money that she would take to thr hospital for checkup could do one or two for her kids, now, she has left those small kids to the hands of their father, to be honest, this would save lives if implemented, deaths will be prevented. We often here terms like...I saw him yesterday, she was fine when we last talked! But was the person reay fine. Detecting medical issues early via regular/occasional checkups would help manage and save lives.
The truth is, here, we don't really count mental health as something serious, imagine going to your parents and ask them to go for such, my own parent would just look at me and rebuke me, or better still ask if I was saying they were running mental and get angry. Most people don’t even understand mental health well enough to know when they need help, and in that sense, compulsory check-ups could help break the stigma. If everyone is doing it, then no one will say“only mad people go to the hospital for mental issues. It would become a normal thing for everyone to do.
Enforcing this would be an entirely different matter. Where are the functional hospitals, cause, to Imagine the queues, the frustration, and the inevitable bribes to get checked quickly and get out.What if the stress alone makes people even sicker. And then there’s the money aspect. Who would bear the cost? Will the government make it free, or will people have to pay out of pocket, or will it be that the government pays some certain amount and if its over that then the people add to it, how many people can afford hospital bills when they are just struggling to put food on the table? Some would see it as one more way the government wants to punish the masses. It would just become one of those policies that sound good on paper but fail in executing.
Compulsory check-ups is good, it would promote a healthier population, reduce sudden deaths, but we need to consider our reality. Are we ready for that kind of structure, do we have the resources, the trained personnel, the funding....and more are the questions we need to give answers to.
Whether it is compulsory or not, it’s high time we take our health serious. I’m not entirely accepting the idea of forcing people to get checked, but I can’t deny the need to normalize regular medical and mental health check-ups. We should encourage it, put certain things in place, that way, people won’t have to be dragged to the hospital out of fear of jail or fines, they would go because they truly/genuinely care about their well-being.
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