The residents house officers and interns hostel under lock and key.
This exclusive report from EKOHOTBLOG is the outcome of week-long painstaking investigation into the activities of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and other public health care centres in Lagos state — the epicenter of coronavirus in Nigeria — in relation to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For years on end, administration after administration has made reviving and repositioning of Nigeria healthcare system the fulcrum of their manifesto. It would be recalled that, aside from its spiel of fighting corruption in Nigeria, another electioneering rhetorics of the president Muhammadu Buhari campaign that had a somewhat salutary effects on newspapers headlines during the build to the 2015 election was his promise to put an end to the exploitative medical tourism.
Conversely, if we sum up the days the president spent outside the shores of the country receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness during his first tenure, that amount to almost a year of billable time. For a president who rode to power on the train of public health care resuscitation, that is at best incongruous and at worse abysmal.
It might be argued that the rot in the health care system is ingrained, hence the revival that will usher in an epoch moment might never come, but this argument will fall flat on its face if it’s measured against current realities, all that’s needed to disrupt the status quo is serious political will.
The mess and debilitating inefficiency of Nigeria’s health care system is, of course, not a strange development to the citizenry, but the outbreak of the virulent infectious disease known as COVID-19 as further exposed it as a sector on the brink of total collapse, this is further aggravated by the incompetence of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
On the 16th Of May, this platform reported that eight medical personnel of Mushin general hospital had contracted the deadly COVID-19 disease.
The patients comprise three doctors and five nurses, causing panic among
This, according to a source quoted by PUNCH, was caused by exposure of the medical personnel to a colleague, who took ill and was being treated for malaria until a nurse shared her concerns that what they might have been tending to could be a coronavirus case.
Consequently, personnel of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control took the samples of the sick worker and the two officials (the nurse and a doctor) who attended to her.
The results of the patient and the doctor were reportedly positive while that of the nurse was negative.
The source said, “It started with a staff member who fell sick two weeks ago and was being treated for malaria at the hospital. It was one of the nurses who attended the COVID-19 training that suspected the worker had contracted the virus. The NCDC was invited and tests were carried out on her, the nurse and a doctor. I later learnt that the patient and the doctor tested positive.
“I expected that they would shut down the ward where the worker was treated but the management did not do so. Also, there was no formal notification that those people were positive so that everyone will be more careful. We asked the managing director about the results but he said they were not out.”
NCDC officials came back to the hospital last week on Wednesday for more testing, another source at the hospital told PUNCH.
“The NCDC officials came with about 15 testing kits last week. I learnt on Tuesday that two other doctors and four nurses have also tested positive. The management has not said anything. We don’t know the people those that tested positive had come in contact with. We are worried. Something must be done about it. We have been kept in the dark,” the official added.
The source bemoaned the grueling work routine workers in his department were subjected to, saying they were at high risk as they had been reporting to the office every day.
The aforementioned scenario is the predicament of most public hospitals and health care workers — poor renumeration, exposure to infectious disease, dearth of essential equipment and medical wears.
The vestige of sordid occurrence at Mushin general hospital is a metaphor for what goes on in other public health centres in the state. From Lagos University Teaching Hospital to federal medical centre to Igbobi, it is the same tales of stark inefficiency and palpable incompetence.
The situation is even more worrisome at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Luth, in Idi-Araba Lagos as no single clinic has begun operation
An impeccable source at the hospital told Eko Hot Blog that the clinics could not commence operation because the federal government had not provided them with the required equipments, adding that most of the departments had shut down.
He disclosed that the hospital had been on partial shutdown for months, hence could not generate income to purchase basic medical equipments that would enable it to perform efficiently.
The situation was so bad that some medical personnel had to spend their personal money on this equipment, the source revealed.
“They are still awaiting the PPEs and the necessary things promised by the Federal government, a lot of the departments are shut down because the health workers got infected .
” Clinics can not fully come into operation, Luth has been in partial shut down for months thereby generating little or no fund, enough to get the basic things needed to function optimally
” Health workers in luth will be glad if they can get help or aids as regards setting up the various departments and providing PPES for workers
” Also those that are using are purchasing with the limited hazard allowance provided.” the source said.
Virtually all health workers are infected
Another source who spoke in confidence with EkoHotBlog said all the doctors in the gynecology department had contracted the deadly Coronavirus, it added all the clinics had one or more workers who had tested positive for COVID-19.
Those at the lower echelon of the organisational structure were not spared by the infection, with over 40 low cadre and non-medical staff like cleaners also infected.
“The whole doctors in the gynecology department were infected and under isolation
” Each of the departments in luth that runs clinic has one or more positive health workers, We have about 40 junior staff, including a cleaner, and low cadre personnel infected too” the source disclosed.
Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Gynecology Theatre under lock and key after fumigation following mass infections at the department.
In the same vein, it was a eerie silence at the hostel of residents house officers and interns. The hostel was locked up and fumigated some few weeks back after all but three of the health workers tested positive to COVID-19.
The residents officers and interns hostel under lock and key.
NGO to the rescue as volunteers are left in the lurch.
At the national institute of medical research in Yaba, the government reneged on its promises to those who volunteered to be tested for COVID-19, a source who’s familiar with the situation told EkoHotBlog.
“Those who volunteered for covid19 testing there are yet to be paid by the Federal government for the past 9-10 weeks” our source revealed.
He disclosed that the stipend they got was 50 thousand naira each from a non-governmental organisation, NGO. Four of the volunteers got infected and are still under treatment.
Same Familiar, distasteful story at FMC Ebute Metta
Federal medical centre ebute metta has no volunteer but has had to contend with lack of personal protective equipment (PPEs) from the onset of the pandemic as well.
The members of staff have been paying for PPE’S from their meager salaries.
5 workers are infected; 3 medical doctors, a nurse and a cleaner.
The National orthopaedic hospital in Igbobi and the Psychiatric centre in Yaba have no known case of COVID-19. This can be largely attributed to the kind of medical service the two facilities specialise in. They are not conventional hospitals where a COVID-19 patient is likely to seek medical attention.
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