COVID-19:Sad Story Of Nigerians Dying Of Other diseases Due To Neglect

   

As the federal and state governments focus on the battle against COVID-19, a lot of Nigerians are dying of other diseases.

"Social distancing, please!” the doctor wa -rned, gesturing in a manner to remind his potential patients about one of the most iterated COVID-19 safety precautions. “I also have a family and can’t afford to contr -act the virus,” the doctor at the Lagos state University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, added.

This doctor, like many others in the country, is daily faced with the difficult task of attending to non-COVID-19 patients and attending to them safely. This dilemma, coupled with a lack adequate staff, poor infrastructure, and insufficient medical equipment is taking a toll on Nigerians who seek medical attention.

The Nation,in a tweet on tuesday, indicated that World Health Organis -ation in the Abuja Declaration of April 2001 recommended that for Nigeria to be considered to be prioritising healthcare, the government has to commit at least 15% of its annual budget to the healthcare sector.

Nigeria still lags behind some African cou -ntries like Rwanda and South Africa in this recommendation. In 2015, 5.78% was appropriated for the health sector. 4.13 % in 2016, 5.17 % in 2017, 4.49 % in 2018, 4.7% in 2019 while 4.16% is budgeted for 2020.

While a few, who may be considered the lucky ones, are attended to at the hospital, many others are turned back on daily basis partly because of fears of contracting the virus on the part of the medical staff and shortage of medical personnel and facilities.

This doctor’s next instruction confirmed the fears of the many patients waiting to be attended to at the front of the Emergency Department of LUTH on this day, June 8.

"We can’t attend to all of you. If your case is not an emergency… a very serious case, go back. For now, we’re only attending to those showing COVID-19 symptoms or emergency cases.”

Following these instructions, an aged man, whose daughter had accompanied for treatment after diagnosis for urinary tract infection, was turned back. After her failed attempts to show her father’s scan results to the doctor, the devastated lady murmurs to the reporter that: “Right now, I am only for my father and his health. I don’t care about anything else.”

The duo and many others reluctantly found their way for the hospital’s exit gate. While some hope to try next time, many others may never live to see the next time.

    

In his late sixties, Adeyemi Jones, a stroke patient, is another person in the wait on June 8 at the A and E unit of LUTH. Despite the unpromising scenario confronting him, he remains uncompromised about securing medical attention before dusk. He would not settle for next time.

" If he could survive the close shave with death the previous Wednesday, he is not likely to give up on seeing a doctor today,” his son, Sultan stated.

Mr. Jones added in affirmation, “When I was rushed to Gbagada General Hospital in the middle of the night and didn’t meet a single doctor or nurse on duty, I thought I was going to die!”

His wife, wearing a face mask branded ‘stay safe’, interjected to express that "only God spared his life. He got us all running helter-skelter when he had that seizure."

Mr. Sultan said he was confused and surprised that the Gbagada hospital, which used to be a host of one of the largest COVID-19 isolation centre in Lagos was empty, thereby denying people medical attention.

"They claim to have an isolation centre in that same hospital but I am still shocked that a whole emergency unit doesn’t have a single soul at that critical time my father was dying apart from the security man that spoke to us. Who knows if they have even transferred those staff to the centre?

Let me even shock you! We were the ones that opened the hospital’s gate ourselves. After shouting for help at the entrance of the emergency unit, it was the security (guard) there that responded and told us there was no one on duty.”

Adeoba Adeniji-Adele, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the hospital told the Nation's reporter that health delivery at the hospital and the isolation centre it hosted, due to the raging virus, work separately and as different entities.

Dr. Adeleke Adesola Kaka, the hospital’s Managing Director also qualified Mr Jones’ allegation as untrue when provided with details.

" I can tell you that’s not true. My doctors are always on duty, even when the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD were on strike. People just tend to assume or carry on with what someone else tells them without making confirmation.’

Health workers in charge of treating COVID-19 patients are volunteers that were recruited and deployed to various centres and not necessarily in Gbagada hospital. The deployment is done at the state and commission (NCDC) level,” he responded to the assumption of whether or not health workers were redeployed to the COVID-19 isolation centre.

After the futile effort to have medical attention at Gbagada General Hospital that midnight, Mr Jones was again driven to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, where he was eventually placed on a drip and stabilized before he could be referred to LUTH the next Thursday morning for further check-up.

At LUTH, he was advised to run some tests before going back for medical attention. Having carried out the tests on Monday, he is now waiting to be re-admitted.

At dusk, Mr. Jones and his family were forced to leave the hospital to seek a next time he may be lucky.