When people talk about the total collapse in standard of medical services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital popularly known as Federal Medical Centre Umuahia, Abia State, I felt it was a cooked up story against the management of that health institution until I got a share of it just recently.
Before now, Queen Elizabeth Hospital used to be the best hospital in Abia State where anyone with major or minor medical challenge gets quality treatment and immediate service delivery.
Doctors and Nurses employed therein were men and women professionally certified, well-trained in consummate healthcare service delivery, always ready and willing to do their job but now what we see at FMC Umuahia in terms of service delivery and willingness to work is an eyesore. You’ll begin to imagine if the crop of people employed there both doctors and nurses, non-professional workers are agents of the devil.
I don’t mean to use harsh words but what I observed and the treatment I received coupled with what patients and people who visit there on regular basis for medical check-up complain about, reigning abuses and curses on them as a result of how they were treated like animals, you’ll feel sorry and ashamed of being a staff of this health institution.
However, not to generalize it to a point as if everyone there is being used by the devil, truth be told there are few with human face and professionally trained who know what to do per time and how to treat patients respectfully irrespective of class but it’s relatively obvious that they are out-numbered by the bad eggs.
Recently, a young boy of about 18years of age cheated death in the hands of a ritualist in a nearby bush here in Umuahia, where he went to fetch firewood, the boy was nearly butchered but he managed and struggled to escape with deep cuts on his face and skull, seriously in a pool of blood bleeding to the point of death.
He was rushed to Federal Medical Centre Umuahia, by a good Samaritan, around 10am, the first port of call was at the Accident and Emergency Unit, the young man was abandoned for more than an hour without any Medicare to at least save his life while the person who brought him was busy running Helter Skelter to secure a folder for treatment.
What the medical personnel were after was purchase of medical card, pay for folder, pay for this and that, before knowing whether or not they’ll do something at that point in time at a Federal Medical Centre, tell me, if not the grace of God wouldn’t the boy die in the process? So so disappointing and disheartening.
If not for the screaming and cries of the little sisters and mother with family members who later came scolding and threatening fire and brimestone, perhaps they wouldn’t have given the young man attention and I asked, why should this happen in a big hospital like this not even a local primary healthcare center in a hinterland.
The most annoying part of it, there are no basic tools and materials to work with, virtually all will be provided by the patient under treatment. It may sound unbelievable that a whole A/E (Accident and Emergency Unit) does not have common first aid materials such plaster, cotton wool, metylated spirit, hydrogen peroxide, medical hand glove, etc now tell me what would they have?. When the good Samaritan who brought the boy to FMC Umuahia was given prescription of these things to get them elsewhere outside the hospital to commence treatment, the question that quickly dropped in my mind was, what happened to the Pharmacy Unit of FMC Umuahia ? On reaching the Pharmacy Section, it was entirely a different ball game, the situation was pathetic so much so that the only drugs you could easily find there are Vitamin C, Paracetamol, infusion drip, and some intravenous injection drugs.
Sadly, all the materials bought outside for the boy’s treatment were colonized by that A/E Unit of FMC Umuahia for their perusal and when they eventually referred him to the ENT/Dentistry Department having discovered that the situation of the boy was beyond their capacity, where the surgery and other treatment took place, these ones requested for theirs without considering that such materials had earlier been bought. This is just the most insignificant of all the unhealthy practices and sheer nonsense that presently go on in this institution. Should we talk about the nonchalant and contemptuous attitude of nurses towards patients? That would be a story for another day.
Is it indiscriminate referrals of patients outside the State on regular basis due to lack of facilities in the hospital? Most disappointing and ridiculous aspect of it is that the referrals are not too far from Abia, just in the neighbouring States like Imo and Enugu meaning that these ones have such facilities but Abia does not.
Recently again, as if the first instance was not enough, some accident victims were rushed down to FMC Umuahia, with various degrees of injury and severe damages to their anatomy. Some of them whose cases were very critical were shamelessly referred to FMC Owerri, Imo State and UNTH Enugu for further treatment simply because some facilities like Computed Tomography, CT machine and Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI Machines for CT and MRI scan
needed to continue diagnosis and treatment were not on ground.
So, on the process of conveying these affected patients to the places of referral they died as a result of unavailability of the facilities that will help to stabilize and possibly save these citizens from their predicament that required urgent attention.
However, there’s nothing wrong in referrals owing to the fact it’s a part of medicine and falls inline with the ethics and practice of the medicine profession generally, but it’s sad to say that FMC Umuahia is more or less a primary healthcare center. People now scornfully refer FMC Umuahia as an express road to the Morgue and hell fire.
Not only these pathetic situations had been recorded, more painful ones are being discussed everyday and keep recurring on daily basis but the Management of this institution appears to be helpless and unreactive to the situations and complaints of the masses who visit there regularly on health grounds. Perhaps they’ve looked at it and accepted it as a normal way of life when it is their legitimate responsibility to address the matter head-on.
One may be wondering or would want to know what the earlier mentioned facilities MRI and CT machines are used for.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a test that uses powerful magnets, radio waves, and a computer to make detailed pictures inside your body. Your doctor can use this test to diagnose you or to see how well you’ve responded to treatment. Unlike X-rays and CT scans, an MRI doesn’t use radiation.
A CT scan machine also known as computed tomography scan, makes use of computer-processed combinations of many X-ray measurements taken from different angles to produce cross-sectional (tomographic) images (virtual “slices”) of specific areas of a scanned object, allowing the user to see inside the object without cutting.
These are very important medical facilities and tools that should not be found wanting in big medical institutions like Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centers among other tertiary healthcare institutions of sort that ought to serve as referral places to primary and secondary healthcare institutions and some unequipped private hospitals and should equally be regarded as the apex hospitals before referring patients outside the country.
But to a shocking surprise, some of the mentioned institutions do not have these facilities and other vital tools to help in the diagnosis of diseases and treatment.
It is painful indeed because each year, we see and listen to huge amount of fund allocated to the health sector of the country in the National Budget, and I asked what are these tremendous amounts used for after the budget defence and disbursement?
Government in power will preach and rattle tongues from the pit of hell, stressing how much Nigerian citizens should be cared for and benefit from the healthcare services yet they would not have access to quality healthcare which they are ready to pay for. What type of Government do we have in this country. Their Primary responsibilities have now been relegated to the background. It is indeed a disgusting, sad and heartbreaking story to tell our posterity.
