The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has rejected a legislative proposal by the National Assembly to impose fines and imprisonment on healthcare workers who reject emergency patients. NMA president, Prof. Afekhide Ernest Omoti, stated this in a statement made available to journalists in Benin City on Thursday, November 5, 2026. Omoti described the proposed sanctions as unjust and urged lawmakers to compel governments to fix hospitals before enacting such laws.
Omoti called on the National Assembly to hold governments accountable for failing to provide the resources, infrastructure, and enabling environment required for effective emergency medical services. He urged lawmakers to address the systemic challenges confronting the country's healthcare sector rather than introduce punitive measures against health professionals. The National Health Act (NHA) had already provided a legal framework for protecting patients requiring emergency medical treatment.
The NHA prohibits the refusal of emergency care, but Omoti noted that it was fundamentally unfair to impose criminal liability on healthcare workers and hospitals for failing to provide services when governments had not fulfilled their responsibility to provide the necessary resources and enabling environment. He said the critical question was not necessarily the absence of legislation but the failure to implement existing provisions and create the enabling environment for their effective execution.
Omoti highlighted Section 6 of the National Health Act, which establishes the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) and provides for the funding of emergency medical treatment. This provision recognises that emergency care requires financial support and that healthcare facilities must not be left to bear the cost of providing such services without appropriate reimbursement.
However, Omoti lamented that the implementation of the BHCPF remained inadequate, leaving hospitals and healthcare facilities that provide emergency treatment to bear considerable financial costs without the expected refunds or reimbursement. This creates an unsustainable situation in which hospitals are expected to provide emergency care without the necessary financial support.
The NMA president identified the shortage of doctors and other healthcare professionals as a major challenge confronting the country's healthcare system. He attributed the situation to poor remuneration, unfavourable working conditions, inadequate infrastructure, insecurity, excessive workloads, and the general lack of an enabling professional environment. These challenges have contributed to the alarming migration of Nigerian doctors and nurses to other countries.
According to Omoti, hospitals are consequently operating with dangerously inadequate manpower. In several facilities, the few available doctors are expected to manage overwhelming patient loads, sometimes under extremely difficult circumstances and without adequate support. The NMA president also decried the brain drain in the healthcare sector, which has worsened the shortage of medical professionals in Nigeria.
Key points
- The Nigerian Medical Association urges lawmakers to address healthcare system challenges rather than impose fines and imprisonment on healthcare workers who reject emergency patients.
- The association highlights the inadequate implementation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, which provides for the funding of emergency medical treatment.
- The NMA president attributes the shortage of doctors and other healthcare professionals to poor remuneration, unfavourable working conditions, and inadequate infrastructure.
