When I tell people I'm not a fan of going to the hospital and wish it could be totally avoided, I often get the same remark from them as well, but sadly we can't do without visiting the hospital at some points in our lives, either for checkups or get treatment for certain ailment, and it is during these times we got some bad experiences that made the hospital a formidable place for us.
Starting with the private ones, I thought good health and treatment were supposed to be the primary source of establishing a hospital in the first place, yea, I know doctors are meant to be paid as well since they've got themselves and family to provide but the private hospitals in my country are more focused on money than their supposed aim like I don't get why a private hospital doctor would insist on a pregnant woman having a caesarian section to birth her baby when no complication warrants that method of childbearing at that time, just because having CS pays them more than a woman giving birth naturally.
Note that I'm not against the CS method of childbearing especially when the mother or child is at risk and that is the sure way of protecting them, but these private doctors take away that choice most times and insist a pregnant woman deliver through CS just to fatten their income, and this is what I've personally witnessed firsthand, another annoying part is them refusing treatments for emergency patients even when the situation seems critical, because the patients couldn't afford the bills at that time.
Also, it is only in Nigerian private hospitals you would find a doctor attending to all patients whether it concerns his field or not, imagine a pediatrician also multitasking as a physiotherapist, why wouldn't wrong diagnoses be given to patients therefore leading to more problems,
They are not all that bad though, because as long as you can afford a private hospital, you would receive faster attention compared to public hospitals where you have to wait in a queue for hours before being attended to due to the crowd waiting to receive their affordable medical care. Also from experience, the public/government hospitals have more specialists compared to the private hospitals.
I once had my child treated after a brief illness that got worse and out of control when she was admitted to a private hospital, my motherly instinct knew all wasn't well with the continuous trial and error treatment she received there, but when she finally got admitted in a public hospital, she was diagnosed rightly and given the right treatment which made her recover quickly. The only problem is that the number of patients they attend to daily can the job overly stressful for them, and trust me, you don't want to be attended to by a stressed and cranky doctor, after all, they are still humans.
From my experience using both hospitals before, I will choose the public hospital over the private, however, this is a choice that comes with lots of patience, at least I will be assured of being attended to by a specialist and not just a random doctor.
All images used are properly sourced