"GIVEN the sanctity of human life, it is bewildering that Nigerian hospitals are still rejecting accident, rape, robbery and gunshot victims. Two separate incidents in Lagos early in June, in which two injured persons died after some hospitals refused to treat them without a police report, suggest strongly that the tradition has yet to change. Anybody can be involved in an accident, so, the cruel fate that befell the two women can happen to anybody. This issue calls for a drastic review of why the measures taken so far by the authorities are not working.
The experience of the recent casualties is pretty depressing. Funmi Odusina, a postgraduate student of the University of Lagos, who was in the company of her friends at a Lagos beach, was rescued from drowning, but was rejected by some private hospitals. She died on the way to the Lagos Island General Hospital. The other victim, Grace Obinna, was violently raped in her Ikorodu home. She was taken to two private hospitals, which refused to admit her. She also died on the way to the Lagos State Teaching Hospital, Ikeja. The coincidence is too striking to be overlooked.
Life is precious, and a society is defined by the value attached to it. It is depressing that these occurrences imply that life is worth little or nothing in Nigeria. Our past is replete with needless deaths after hospitals rejected injured people. The case of Bayo Ohu of The Guardian is unforgettable. Ohu, who was attacked by assassins in his Lagos home in 2009, didn’t die immediately, but was rejected at a hospital. He could not make it to the nearest public hospital. This is wrong. The system should be re-structured to accommodate such emergencies.
Similar incidents included the 2008 case of Saka Saula, the then chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, who was shot in his house. A nearby hospital refused to treat him; he died on the way to a public hospital. This was how one of two brothers – Raphael and Felix Omorukhe – died after an armed robbery attack in Lagos. While Felix died instantly, Raphael survived, but died later after he was turned back by private and public hospitals because there was no police report. It is sad that innocent victims of crime continue to die because of the society’s collective negligence. Some hospitals however turn back the injured because they have no money to deposit.
Health experts state that gunshot victims are prone to anaerobic infection, especially tetanus and gas gangrene. In Nigeria, many of the victims bleed to death. Emergencies need a quick response, not a denial of treatment. Several directives by the police high command have changed nothing. Last May, the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, issued another directive to medical doctors to treat the injured when six medical doctors from Ekiti State died in a road accident in Kaduna State after a hospital denied them first aid treatment. Solomon Arase, who retired as the Inspector-General of Police on June 21, was forced to re-issue the directive in September 2015, stopping police from molesting doctors who treat injured persons.
But what is the genesis of the debacle? Shortly after the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, armed robbery became rife. The military government, which noticed that robbers who escaped with gunshot wounds were being treated at hospitals, reacted by promulgating the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Decree No. 47 of 1970. A 1986 amendment to the decree stated that hospitals must notify the police if they treated any gunshot victim. Acting on this, the police banned emergency medical treatment for gunshot victims.
The problem is that the law has been abused by the police. As a result, hospitals reject those who are shot. A thoughtful new law enacted in the wake of the death of injured people is ineffective for similar reasons. The National Health Act 2014, in Section 20, states partly: “A health care provider, health worker or health establishment shall not refuse a person emergency medical treatment for any reason.” An offender is liable to a fine of N100,000, a jail term of six months or both upon conviction. Yet, it is toothless.
The way out therefore, is a holistic discourse involving the Nigerian Medical Association, the police and the FMoH. But the stance of the police is crucial. They must be re-oriented. They need to change their mind-set against health workers, who, because of fear, reject wounded people. In other parts of the world, the rule is to treat first and notify law enforcement of the incident later.
Like other societies that are saving lives, the police must be compelled to obey the NHAct. This will ultimately end the reluctance among health workers to treat and report the cases. In 2007, when there was an upsurge in knife and gun violence in Britain, civil rights activists and the Association of Chief Police Officers recommended a change of attitude by all the agencies concerned. A guideline approved by the United Kingdom’s General Medical Council says: “The patient should remain the medical team’s prime concern at all times and the police’s arrival should not be allowed to delay or hamper treatment or to compromise the patient’s recovery. The healthcare team and the police must abide by this decision.” This is the way forward.
By streamlining the role of the police and implementing the provisions of the NHAct, medical workers will be able to reverse the disgusting trend. We urge the acting IGP, Ibrahim Idris, civil society groups and the NMA to convene a roundtable that will spell out the functions of every segment in the system. The NMA must take it upon itself to establish a network that will allow hospitals to report harassment of its members by the police, who must severely punish errant cops. This way, medical workers will care for the injured without entertaining any fear."
Culled from PUNCH.
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