The Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) has produced a policy brief that will reduce the long hours and minutes patients often wait before seeing a doctor for any medical consultation, at hospitals or healthcare centres.

The policy, captured in a publication titled, “Resolving Discrete Challenges in the Delivery of Public Goods and Services: Reducing Waiting Times to See a Doctor,” was produced by the Bureau.

Director General of the federal government’s agency, Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi, in a statement released by Aliyu Umar Aliyu, said findings from their study showed that from patients recall, they wait an average of 6 hours 12 minutes to see a doctor.

Aliyu, who is the Principal Information Officer (PIO) of the Bureau, quoted Arabi has saying that their study, also found out that patients are dissatisfied with the long waiting times, but have accepted long waiting as a norm when visiting secondary and tertiary health institutions.

He underscored the need to implement a robust referral system between primary, secondary and tertiary care to limit the burden placed on the secondary and tertiary healthcare services.

“This should be supported by policy to instruct all health institutions to operate an appointment system with built-in appointment reminder system,” said the BPSR helmsman.

According to Mr. Arabi, improvement of patients and staff attitude using Social and Behavioural Change Communication strategies can be employed to mitigate against unnecessary or long waiting times is key through appropriate sensitization platforms.

He said: “This will facilitate seamless transitional change management. It is important to implement SMART department strategies to ensure efficiency and cost-effectiveness is at the forefront of the healthcare delivery goals.”

Signed:

Aliyu Umar Aliyu,

Chief Information Officer (CIO),

BPSR.

3/4/2025