Man Makes Comparison Between Nigerian Hospital And UK Hospital, Shares His Experience – SIXT-MEDIA LANE
Nigeria Isn’t As Bad As You Think — Let Me Explain by uche87(m): 3:17pm On Feb 11
On the 30th of January, 2026, I fell ill while at work. After struggling through the rest of the day, I returned home to rest. When my condition worsened, I decided to visit the Accident and Emergency (A&E) unit at my local hospital.
I arrived at exactly 10:13 pm. Within a minute, I was booked in by the receptionist and asked to wait. Shortly after, a nurse called me, took my details, and recorded my vital signs. I was then asked to return to the waiting area to see a doctor. That moment never came.
Instead, I was called twice more by nurses to repeat the same observations, each time urged to remain patient. A notice board nearby displayed the previous day’s estimated waiting time — seven hours. My ordeal lasted until 9:30 am the following morning. I never saw a doctor. Eventually, a specialist nurse briefly attended to me, offered verbal reassurance, handed me a leaflet, and asked me to leave. The A&E waiting area became a temporary shelter. People turned chairs into makeshift beds. Others left in frustration. The environment was chaotic. Police officers intermittently brought in injured suspects in handcuffs, adding to the tension and discomfort.
As I sat there, exhausted and unwell, my thoughts drifted back to Nigeria. I remembered a day in 2016 at a government hospital in FESTAC Town, Lagos, when my condition deteriorated so badly that the crowd insisted I jump the queue. I also recalled how, at the private hospital attached to the multinational firm I worked for, I could see a doctor within five to ten minutes.
Now, in the UK, seeing a doctor sometimes feels like winning a lottery. According to The Sun, 554,018 patients in England waited 12 hours or more in A&E in 2025. Data from the Nuffield Trust shows that during peak periods, over 61,000 patients per month experienced 12+ hour waits — around 11% of all emergency admissions. At a minimum of 12 hours per patient, this amounts to over 6.6 million hours lost annually.
Unsurprisingly, many Nigerians living in the UK now travel back home for major surgeries and treatments. It is often faster, cheaper, and far less stressful.
While the quality of healthcare in the UK and Nigeria may appear worlds apart, few imagined that Nigeria would one day serve as a medical lifeline for those living abroad.
Beyond healthcare, the economic reality is equally sobering. Many Nigerians sold land, cars, and family properties to relocate. Today, they struggle under hyper-inflated rents, rising energy bills, and high living costs, barely staying afloat.
Securing a white-collar job often feels like requiring divine intervention. The system appears structured to trap certain groups within physically demanding, low-paying roles. Warehouse work destroys the body. The care sector drains emotional and physical strength. Mental health support work, though meaningful, exposes workers to extreme violence and psychological trauma.
NHS England records over 100,000 violent incidents against healthcare staff annually — an average of 285 assaults every day. In June 2025, Irene Wanjiru Mbugua, a 48-year-old care worker originally from Kenya, was tragically killed by a patient in the West Midlands. While rare, such incidents reveal the severe dangers frontline healthcare workers face daily.
Social conditions are no less concerning. 21% of people in the UK — about 14.2 million individuals — live in poverty. Without social safety nets, this figure would skyrocket. Additionally, 24 million people receive at least one form of state benefit, including pensions, disability support, and working-age benefits, highlighting the scale of economic vulnerability.
In terms of safety, police recorded 53,047 knife-related offences in England and Wales in the year ending March 2025. While the UK remains safer than Nigeria overall, rising violent crime remains deeply troubling.
For parents seeking better opportunities for their children, another danger lurks — hard drugs. Government data shows 16,212 children aged 17 and below were in drug and alcohol treatment between April 2024 and March 2025, a 13% increase from the previous year. This underscores the growing exposure of young people to harmful substances.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria, social life thrives. Community bonds remain strong. Laughter is louder. Life feels fuller. In contrast, the UK work culture often reduces life to an endless cycle of work, bills, exhaustion, and survival. Tragically, between 2024 and 2025, several Nigerian students and workers collapsed and died in the UK due to stress and exhaustion, including cases in South Wales and Hertfordshire.
I’ll end on a lighter note. The stress levels here are so intense that almost everyone snores like old power generators. Many refuse to believe it — until shown video evidence. This was never the case back home.
The hustle has shifted gears. And this one runs at a dangerously high speed.
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