- Stakeholders blame inadequate manpower, health workers’ negligence
- Our challenges are gradually being addressed – CMD
The recent controversial death of a 14-year-old boy at the Offa General Hospital in Kwara State has brought to the fore the rot in the medical facility and the need for the state government to address the highlighted challenges confronting the centre.
Before the death of the teenager, the hospital has reportedly recorded pockets of deaths of patients owing to alleged lack of sufficient health workers, poor medical facilities and negligence on the part of the few available health workers.
On the recent death which occurred on March 23, 2024, it was gathered that parents of the young patient rushed him to the hospital but met no doctor on duty.
After staying at the hospital for about two hours, the patient was reportedly admitted. Unfortunately, he gave up the ghost a few minutes after his admission.
“It was on a Saturday at about a few minutes after 11:00am when we rushed our son to Offa General Hospital for urgent treatment. When we got there, we met a female nurse who told us that there was no doctor on duty and that they don’t work on weekends.
“We were confused on what to do next because that is the closest hospital to us. We had to keep on begging the nurse to help us call any doctor to attend to our dying child. It was about 2:00pm when the nurse admitted us and gave our child a bed. A doctor later came and attended to him and as he was doing that, he got another call for an emergency.
“Not long after this we lost our child. We regret bringing him to that hospital. We never knew their services were bad,” a relative of the deceased child narrated amid tears.
Sadly, after the teenager’s death, the hospital was said to have recorded the death of a three-month old baby in questionable and avoidable circumstances.
On December 10, 2022, a pregnant woman, Mrs. Fauzeeyah Onaopemipo Salaudeen died at one of the labour rooms of the Offa General Hospital in Kwara State alongside her baby.
The expectant mother was said to have left her home on her due date with high hope to be back with her bundle of joy after delivery, but the dream of bearing her child with pride and gratitude was aborted in the labour room.
Sources claimed that the woman, who went through excruciating pain for several hours, was abandoned in the labour room by the nurses on duty before she died.
Also, The Point had reported the sad tales of some patients who had visited Offa General Hospital for medical services. It was revealed that most patients met their untimely deaths at the hospital as a result of negligence, shortage of manpower and due to poor health facilities.
One of them who did not want her name in print alleged that doctors would sometimes neglect their duties to watch football matches at the hospital. He said that they would ignore the cries of pregnant women in labour and others in critical conditions.
According to her, on Friday, December 9, 2022, a pregnant woman visited the Offa General Hospital for delivery and the nurse on duty told her that it was not her Expected Date of Delivery. The lady, upon advice by a friend, went to the health centre behind the Olofa Palace for assessment. Contrary to what she was told earlier, she was told at the health centre that she was due for delivery. She reportedly gave birth before 9pm the same night at the private health facility.
Also, Sunday Obinna, an Igbo trader resident in Offa, explained that he requested that his wife should be discharged from the hospital as a result of shortage of doctors.
Obinna said, “My wife was once at the point of delivery. We were going up and down without anybody to attend to us at the Offa General Hospital. Someone later attended to us when I created a scene and drew people’s attention. A nurse said that the doctor was not around and that we should either come back or wait. We went to a private hospital where my wife eventually delivered her baby almost an hour after. I regretted encouraging her to go to that hospital for antenatal care.”
In her own case, Balikis Adeola, mother-of-four, alleged that in 2013, she lost her first child due to negligence on the part of the hospital staff.
She said, “Same thing happened to me in 2013. They (the medical practitioners at Offa General Hospital) made me lose my baby. They abandoned me and went to sleep. I delivered the baby myself. The baby had inhaled blood and dirt before coming out. They had to beat him before he cried. I lost the baby on the third day at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital at Oke Oyi.”
Stakeholders in the town identified low manpower, shortage of medical equipment in the hospital, negligence on the part of the few available workers and lack of electricity as some of the challenges battling the hospital.
Describing the incessant deaths of care-seekers in the hospital as worrisome and depressive, a lecturer who is an indigene of Offa, Taofik Jimoh, said, “You can’t go to Offa General Hospital and meet doctors on duty. They will have to call them. They can come and choose not to come sometimes. What I see is that most of the medical practitioners in the hospital, if not all, have their own hospitals, clinics, or at least, maternity facilities where they spend most of their time, therefore affecting their services at the state hospital.
“On the afternoon of Saturday, April 13, 2024, there was only one nurse in the maternity section attending to seven pregnant women who were about to enter the labour room and two more who had just given birth. A three-month-old baby had died at the same hospital on March 23, 2024, due to avoidable circumstances. The Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Dr. El-Imam Aminah, organized a zoom meeting to discuss what had happened. What I found to be more profound was the fact that Dr. Aminah didn’t give anyone the chance to talk.”
Also lamenting the development, another stakeholder, a former Offa Descendants’ Union Secretary, Muideen Adebayo Ibrahim said, “Despite the way and manner our people have been lamenting about the state of the General Hospital and manpower shortage, yet, the government has not done anything to alleviate the various challenges at the General Hospital. What type of a state is this, please?
“Why is it that the sensitivity of those who are in charge of the healthcare system in the state is too low? Or the bulk is at the table of His Excellency and he has not yet acted? Or what? Is this the way they run General Hospital in Ilọrin? Why is Offa General Hospital neglected and people keep complaining bitterly often?
“I can’t fathom what our two honourable members of the House of Assembly are doing if they can’t fix the rot in the Offa General Hospital as soon as possible by intervening and using their good offices to do the needful.”
Refuting the claim of negligence of duty, the doctor on duty when the teenager died, explained that immediate attention was provided when he got to the hospital by placing the boy on oxygen and taking his blood sample for further testing.
Simply identified as Dr. Emmanuel, the medical practitioner clarified that upon examination, the child was found to be suffering from severe blood loss and dangerously low oxygen levels which was 47 percent instead of the normal 92 per cent.
“Despite efforts to stabilize the child with oxygen, the condition did not improve, necessitating continuous monitoring by a nurse. Doctor Emmanuel’s prioritization of urgent cases in another unit and swift action in attending to critical patients is commendable,” a report submitted by a team of four indigenes of the town who investigated the incident disclosed.
Responding to the allegation of negligence by one of the stakeholders, the Chief Medical Director of the General Hospital, Offa, Dr. O. M Abdulsalam, said, “While I admit the fact that there are obvious challenges being faced by the hospital which is gradually been addressed, and on the same page with all concerned that the status quo must change, I would have preferred that diligent investigative journalism prevailed over sensationalism.”
