The high cost of medical check-up in Nigeria, also called routine health examination, is one of the reasons you will find very few Nigerians in the hospitals for medical check-up except they have been diagnosed with an ailment.
Quick Facts About Medical Checkup
Medical check-ups are important for both healthy and non-healthy individuals as they help to allay fears and bring forth the reasons for our health fears. They help to ascertain our health status and help us to tackle health problems, if any is discovered, quickly.
In this article, our focus will be on the cost of medical check-up in Nigeria. however, we will consider explaining what medical check-ups entail, why you should check your health status regularly and how you can reduce the cost of medical check-up in Nigeria.
What does Medical Check-up Entail?
Medical check-up, medical examination, or medical screening, whichever name you call it refers to the periodic examination of certain organs, tissues, or emotional state of an individual to ascertain the level of functionality and general state of normalcy of such individuals.
Medical check-ups are carried out by Doctors that are General Practitioners. They help their patients ascertain their health status on a regular basis according to their advice. They do this through three means; interview, examination, and tests.
Interviews
The doctor asks the patient some questions that may provide information on thing he should look out for. Questions asked during these sessions are usually casual and can be done when the patient is visiting for other reasons. They usually include family history, living condition, health history, age, nature of job, marital status, and many more.
All of these questions are to make the doctor know what could possibly be a factor to any health issue that had existed or might exist in the future. The family history and health history helps the doctor know the diseases the patient is likely to develop through heredity.
Examination
Physical examination requires the patient to remove part or most of their clothing to allow the doctor check for physical abnormalities in the body. It encompasses checks by hand and by use of equipment such as the sphygmomanometer to check blood pressure.
The doctor may check for bone structure with his hand, examine the eyes, feel for any abnormal largeness in the thyroid around the neck, check pulse rate, examine the pubic area, and many more. The extent of physical examination depends on what the doctor deems necessary.
Tests
Patients are sometimes instructed to carry out some medical tests such as urine tests, blood tests, Scans, for record purposes and to help the doctor observe and study parts he cannot see during the physical examination.
Tests also help to create a record of health status over time.
Why Should you Undergo Regular Medical Check-Up?
In as much as medical check-ups can be inconvenient sometimes, it is essential that you carry out regular check-ups. The regularity of your medical check-up is dependent on your age, medical history, family history, and occupation.
Your doctor put these factors together to tell you how often you need to come in for check-ups. For instance, a diabetic might be told to come in for check-ups every two months while another diabetic might check-in every month. The reason is because of the severity of their diabetic conditions.
Therefore, your doctor’s advice on when to come in for check-ups shouldn’t be taken lightly. Here are other reasons you should get medical examination regularly.
- Assess current health status
- Helps to ascertain your risk level for future health concerns
- Helps to check your lifestyle and what to improve
- Helps the doctor to decide if you need a change of medication
- Allays your health-related fears.
Who needs Medical Check-up?
Everyone needs to know their health status. The human body can strive under unfavourable conditions only for some time. It is therefore best to know what condition your body is in at every reasonable time as advised by your doctor.
Medical check-up is for every age but it gets more frequent for people who are
- Above 40 years old
- Have medical conditions that needs attention such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, cancer, etc.
- Work in dangerous places such as miners, chemical engineers.
- Recently had surgery, accidents, or any traumatic experience.
Cost of Medical Check-up in Nigeria
The cost of medical check-up in Nigeria is one of the reason people avoid it. Prevention is better than cure, yes, but prevention in Nigeria is so costly that people will rather hold off on being checked before they develop a medical problem.
This problem is evidenced in the fact that to get a medical examination or check-up with a general practitioner, you will be required to spend between 10,000 – 40,000 NGN as consultation fee, depending on the institution you choose. Note that that price is devoid of expenses to be incurred in carrying out numerous medical tests.
The average Nigerian earns less than 50,000 NGN monthly and is expected to take a percentage out of that to pay for consultancy to a Doctor so as to know his health status.
How to Cut Cost of Medical Check-up in Nigeria.
To reduce the cost of medical check-up in Nigeria, the government has started the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to help alleviate the financial stress Nigerians face in getting good health care. However, the financial stress alleviation programme does not include test like MRI Scan.
To further help its citizens, some state governments like Osun State have further subsidized the health care system through their own insurance programme, Osun Health Insurance Scheme, OHIS.
To reduce the cost of your routine medical check-up, use the insurance programme provided by the government so as to ease the financial stress it might give you.
Conclusion
Medical check-ups are the regular examination you doctor does and authorizes in order to ascertain your current health status, future health concerns, and how they can be tackled from the present. It is costly for the average Nigerian to be checked regularly. However, insurance schemes have been developed to ease that.
It is advisable that you use the insurance scheme and take your health seriously by knowing your health status in periodic intervals.