Patient-Doctor forum launched to bridge communication gap in healthcare
By Ofili Franca
Dr Isaac Akerele, Director-General, Nigerian Doctors Foundation has said that medical experts are working to explore subjects that are at the heart of good healthcare and effective community to advance patient‑centred care.
He said this in Abuja during the launch of Patient–Doctor Forum with theme:” Humanising Healthcare in Nigeria: Empowering patients, caregivers and providers”.
He said the launch was to bridge the communication gap in healthcare by bringing patients, caregivers, and providers together in one room.
”Today we bring together two essential partners in health , those who seek care and those who provide it, to learn from one another and to listen.
” We will also to build practical ways to improve outcomes, satisfaction, and quality of life for patients across our dear country and beyond,” he said.
Akerele noted that for too long, the conversation about healthcare had happened in silos.
He said that clinicians spoke in one room, patients in another, and policy makers in a third, adding that the forum exists to break those walls.
”The purpose of our gathering is simple yet profound: to make communication the bridge between medical expertise and lived experience.
”When that bridge is strong, diagnosis is clearer, treatment plans are followed, and trust is restored.
”We know that the best clinical knowledge means little if it cannot be understood, accepted, and acted upon by the person receiving care.
”That is why patient‑centred communication is not a luxury; it is a clinical necessity,” he said, adding that the forum was not about blame, but about shared responsibility.
Akerele said that good healthcare required both competent providers and informed, engaged patients, adding that neither succeeds without the other.
He said the forum would examine practical tools for improving communication at the bed side, in clinics, and across digital platforms and discuss how health systems could support and reward these practices.
”We will talk about language not just medical jargon, but the language of respect, empathy, and cultural sensitivity that makes patients feel safe enough to speak openly,” he said.
Akerele said the forum would talk about listening, active, uninterrupted listening that allows clinicians to hear what was said and what was left unsaid.
He said the talk about partnership moving from a model where the doctor decides and the patient obeys, to one where decisions are made together based on evidence, values, and circumstances.
”Nigeria’s health challenges are complex, but our greatest resource remains our people.
”When patients and providers trust each other, adherence improves, errors reduce, and outcomes improve even before new drugs or equipment arrive,” he said.
According to him, the goal is to produce actionable recommendations that can be taken back to hospitals, clinics, training institutions, and homes across the country.
”May our dialogue today humanise healthcare, empower everyone and set a new standard for how we care for one another in Nigeria and beyond,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr Akin Moses, Coordinator of Training, Family Medicine and Head, Emergency Medicine, National Hospital Abuja, said healing begins when the patient feels seen, heard, and valued.
He said beyond science, systems, resources, and professional pressures, the strongest medicine was often the human connection between doctors and patients.
”Without that connection, you treat the illness, but miss the person.
Humane care is not optional.
“A health system can have skilled doctors and advanced technology and still fail patients if it lacks compassion, respect, and accountability.
”How a system treats people is the real measure of its strength, patients may forget what you said, but they never forget how you made them feel,” he said.
According to him, the patient-doctor encounter is where science meets humanity.
He explained that the patient was not a case file, but a person carrying fear, uncertainty, hope, and a need to be understood.
He noted that every patient walks into the hospital with symptoms and a silent hope that someone would listen, understand, and care for them, adding that the someone was the doctor.
”Patients with complex conditions have one request: remember we are human.Believe us, take us seriously, listen, ask before touching, and recognise that illness affects every part of our lives.
“Humane care translates health as a biomedical event into healing as a lived experience,” Moses said.
He said focusing only on disease to the exclusion of the person strips humanity from the encounter.
According to him, when physicians ignore psychosocial, emotional, and environmental factors, they detach from the patient’s real state of health.
”A biopsychosocial, patient-centered approach restores that connection and produces better outcomes.
“Evidence shows humane care helps patients recover physically, emotionally, and psychologically.
” It increases participation in care, improves communication, enhances diagnosis and adherence, reduces burnout, and lowers conflict and litigation.
”Respectful communication and dignity directly improve clinical outcomes in diabetes, pain, and cancer care,” he said.
According to him, what patients actually value are dignity, respect, privacy, confidentiality, being listened to, clear explanations, opportunity to ask questions, guidance on next steps, reassurance, and empathy.
He said these were not extras, but treatment that gave value and happiness to patients, alongside drugs and procedures, noting that the system-level barriers in Nigeria made humane care difficult.
”Poor doctor-patient ratios, low health budgets, long waiting times, disrespectful treatment, and weak infrastructure erode trust.
”When patients face delays and poor communication, services are avoided and outcomes like maternal mortality worsen,” he said.
Moses while saying that one could not give what he does not have, added that personal problems, prejudice, judgmental attitudes, burnout, excess workload, and poor welfare all blocked humane care.
He added that protecting clinician well-being and addressing moral injury were prerequisites for compassion.
”Medicine is not only a science; it is a human relationship and a moral practice, we may not change every system overnight, but we can change how we care today.
”Commit to practicing with competence, empathy, respect, and presence. If each person removes one barrier to human connection in their sphere, the system will begin to change,” he said.(newsatlarge.ng)
