Medical doctors operating private hospitals in Kwara State are complaining of poor patronage, just as indigent patients abscond from facilities.
According to The Guardian checks across some of these medical facilities in the state, since the last quarter of last year, a drastic drop of over 51 per cent has been recorded in the number of the patients that patronise the facilities.
Some medical practitioners, under strict conditions of anonymity, said there had been phenomenal increase in the number of patients surreptitiously walking away from their hospital beds without observing proper procedures for their discharge in the period under review.
The reports collated in Omu-Aran and Oro in Irepodun Local Council; Offa in Offa Local Council; Lafiaji in Lafiaji Local Council and Ilorin in Ilorin West, South and East showed that many of the patients, who absconded, either lied to be moving around the premises convalescing or searching for good network while making calls.
“About seven of them ran away while being transfused with ‘Normal Saline.’ Some even absconded with our uniforms. They have, on occasions, beaten our security guards to these,” said a doctor at Omu-Aran.
A private medical practitioner at Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Quarters, along Pipeline Road Ilorin, said: “At present, many of our patients, who were paying well before, are owing us. The cost of drugs astronomically increased. This is scary.”
An orthopaedic doctor, who retired as a professor from University of Ilorin but now with a private facility at Basin Area of Ilorin, narrated: “As we speak, about five automobile accident victims with severe fractures are being stabilised without any hope of getting money for our services. Their relatives are crying for free treatments because of poverty.”
In the same vein, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who runs an In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) clinic at the Judges’ Quarters Area, Tanke, Ilorin, said, no indigent patient could assess his facilities without supplementary supports.
“We recently clamoured for assistance for this category of patients. We must make them happy parents through medical science. It is not our making; it is a scientific breakthrough. But it is very expensive. In most cases, we need to cut the costs by over 80 per cent for the indigent patients,” he said.
President of Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Dr Abdullahi Dele, canvassed urgent basic healthcare funding for Nigerians to address the poor response of the indigent patients to the orthodox healthcare system.
