The
practice of asking for a cash deposit in hospitals before administering
treatment and the inability to pay the requested amount has been the
sad cause of death of several patients. In Port Harcourt, something
similar occurred recently when a lady, pregnant with her first child,
died over her husband’s inability to pay the requested deposit.
PM News reports that on November 25th
2012, a 34 year old woman, Ijeoma Umumadumere, was rushed to the
Garrison Clinic in Port Harcourt when she complained of a sudden stomach
pain and headache, while cooking. She was five-months pregnant.
At the hospital, doctors insisted her
husband must pay N20,000 before she was treated. However, he had only
N5,000 on him and used it to offset registration and other costs. But
the doctors and nurses would not attend to his wife because he didn’t
pay the N20,000 that was being demanded as a precondition for treatment.
When he realised the doctors were not going to attend to his wife, he
took her to another hospital but sadly, it was too late and she died.
The anger and frustration over her death
was expressed by her brother, Uzoma Ahamefule who wrote a heartfelt
letter to PM News. In the letter, Uzoma who lives in Austria said he
couldn’t understand why doctors in a Nigerian hospital could have
treated his sister that way.
“Her husband begged
the doctor and the nurses to attend to her since they had collected
about N5, 000 he had in his pocket in the name of registration and other
little things while he would go home and bring money. He had also told
them that because of the nature of the emergency and the way his wife
had been shouting while on the ground that his mind had only been
pre-occupied with the thoughts of rushing her to any nearby hospital and
had not thought of money or any other thing as he had even forgotten to
put on shoes, but all his pleading and explanations to the doctor and
the nurses had fallen onto deaf ears. With her pains increasing and
death knocking and the doctor and the nurses refusing to understand,
there was no way he could have left her there unattended, to go home and
bring money. He took her and headed to another hospital, but
unfortunately my sister did not make it as the damage had already been
done before the doctors in that second hospital could do something
reasonable to save her life.”
“What a country,
what a failure and what a loss! This is a sad story of the sorry state
of the Nigerian health policy, how Nigerians are heartlessly and
carelessly neglected because of money by doctors and nurses to die in
hospitals, and how I lost my sister to a failed system.”
In a lot of private and public hospitals
in Nigeria, this sort of deposit is usually demanded even in cases of
emergency. Doctors and nurses would refuse to attend to a patient until
the money is paid. In the event that this money is unavailable, the
patient lies in pain and his or her health suffers.
Her death is really sad and calls for a
discussion on this practice. What can be done to ensure that in our
hospitals, the life of a patient is taken as priority? We understand
that in most cases, the hospitals are trying to prevent a situation
whereby a patient would be treated and they won’t get paid for the
services rendered, however, losing a life over N20,000 is inexcusable.
Are the doctors not obligated to render their services in emergency
cases or is this a proper medical practice?
Let’s discuss.BellaNaija
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