NMA asks National Assembly to fix hospitals before jailing health workers over emergency care

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has pushed back against a proposal in the National Assembly to fine and imprison health workers who refuse to treat emergency patients, saying government should first fix the hospitals it expects them to work in.

NMA president Prof. Afekhide Ernest Omoti made the position in a statement on Thursday, November 5, 2026, issued in Benin City. He called the proposed sanctions unjust.

The association said it accepts that patients have a right to urgent care whether or not they can pay. But it argued that lawmakers should hold government to its own duties before punishing doctors and nurses.

What the NMA is asking for

Omoti said the National Health Act already bars hospitals from refusing emergency treatment. In his view, the problem is not a missing law but weak enforcement and poor funding.

He pointed to Section 6 of the Act, which sets up the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to pay for emergency medical treatment. The fund is meant to make sure hospitals are not left to carry the cost alone.

According to the NMA, that refund is not working well. Hospitals that treat emergency cases, sometimes at great cost to their own thin resources, are not getting the money back.

"This creates an unsustainable situation in which hospitals are expected to provide emergency care without the necessary financial support," Omoti said.

He argued it is unfair to make health workers and hospitals criminally liable when government has not provided the resources and environment they need to do the job.

Too few doctors, too little equipment

The NMA president also raised the shortage of doctors and other health workers. He blamed poor pay, hard working conditions, weak infrastructure, insecurity and heavy workloads.

Those problems, he said, are driving Nigerian doctors and nurses abroad, including to neighbouring African countries with better conditions of service. Hospitals here are left with "dangerously inadequate manpower," with the few doctors available handling overwhelming patient loads.

He listed what many hospitals lack for emergencies: oxygen, essential drugs, blood and blood products, resuscitation equipment, consumables and working ambulances.

"How can we threaten health workers with imprisonment for circumstances that are substantially beyond their control?" he asked.

The NMA urged the Senate to drop the amendment in its current form and instead tackle the funding and staffing gaps that undermine emergency care.

What happens next: The proposal sits with the Senate. The NMA wants it withdrawn or reworked, so the next move is with lawmakers.