Abysmal care at our National Hospital

When people go to the hospital, they generally expect to come out in a better state of health - especially when the hospital is the National Hospital. Of late, though, several patrons of the hospital have tagged the National Hospital, Abuja, as a place where mistakes by health workers tend to happen too frequently.

Last week, a staff of a bank in Abuja, who did not want her name mentioned, told NEXT she lost her child after a surgery was performed on him at the hospital. She was also unhappy with the lack of professionalism of the officials of the hospital she came in contact with during the episode.

The hospital's Assistant Director of Information, Yahaya Sadiq, however said although the size and infrastructural limitations of the hospital means it could not provide optimum service in all cases, and its patrons have to promptly inform the management of any shortcomings they notice in the treatment they receive.

"We are about 1300 in staff strength and there is no way the management can guarantee the good behaviour of every one of them," he said. "That is the reason the doctors wear name tags. We also use public address system, which reaches every nook and cranny of the hospital, saying if you have any problem, or if you come across a difficult staff, come to the Servicom office and lay your complaint.

"If they can get the name on the tag and look closely at the identity card, they will see the department, then report to the Servicom office and we will take it up. We cannot change things without maximum cooperation from patients and their relatives."

Reporting to the hospital's management would hardly assuage the feelings of helplessness and rage aroused in the lady banker. It took her three weeks to share her experience.

"I delivered in Nisa Premier Hospital Abuja and the baby was not feeding well nor passing stool," she said. "I was not informed of what was wrong. When I got there [National Hospital] a lady doctor just looked at the referral note and said ‘you mean you are here for operation?' That was the first shock I had. They said the baby had intestinal congestion and that it was a simple procedure. We were placed on admission that same day and were told they were going to open up a hole where he could pass stool.

"They did the first procedure, which was opening a hole in the baby's abdomen and inserting a tube so that the baby can pass stool [colostomy]. We spent three months in the hospital and all the while, the baby was still stooling through the tube passed into him."

After returning home, the family noticed that the baby was still not passing stool and his tummy was swelling. They returned to the hospital where they met a consultant doctor. He said if the baby survived with colostomy for three months, then the baby has complete organs or they did not carry out the tests well.

The baby died

Eventually, the doctors performed another colostomy on the baby. She said some of the doctors told her to be patient and be prayerful. "Even while on admission, to give the baby injection was a problem," she said. "Sometimes I had to go round looking for a doctor. I went [to] the hospital when the tube was removed and my baby's belly started swelling, but there was no one to help insert the tube.

A member of the House of Representatives who came to the hospital to see somebody else saw me crying, and called somebody who had the director's number.

"The director then called the person who was supposed to be on duty and found out he was not even in town. By the time he got back, it was around 5 pm. My eyes had swollen from crying. They had called some of the student doctors to try, but the tube came out each time."

She finally decided, like more and more Nigerians are now doing, to seek treatment for her child abroad. She went to the Metro Hospital, India, where she learnt what harm had been done her child.

"They asked me what hospital I took the baby to and when I told them, they just shook their heads and said the hospital should be sued," she said. "They told me the correction was not properly done and that they were going to do some checks to prove that. They inserted an instrument and it did not go straight, the way it should and the doctor said they had made a big mistake in trying to correct the congestion in the first place. The doctors said something had been cut in the process and that was why he could not pass stool. The doctor told me he was sorry, my baby was going to die. And he died a few weeks later."

No power at the hospital

During visits to the hospital, NEXT noticed prolonged lack of power supply. The generating sets installed to provide power when the national electricity utility cuts supply-which is often-is itself dysfunctional. So, the National Hospital is often without electricity. The Information Manager of the hospital said the generating set was old and had developed problems. "It was bought 10 years ago and now it is bad," he said. "However, adverts have been put up, we have to follow due process."

There had been calls that the National Hospital, presently under The Presidency, should be handed over to the Federal Ministry of Health to manage. The critics said the supervision of the ministry might change the haughty attitude of the staff and improve the services and standard of the hospital.

Mr Sadiq, however, differs. He said the hospital fares better than any other teaching hospital in the country because it is closer to The Presidency. "It is easier and quicker to get our problem to The Presidency," he said. "The hospital will definitely do better under The Presidency than under the Ministry of Health."

History

The National Hospital was established under Decree 36 of 1999 [now, Act 36 of 1999]. It was declared open on May 22, 1999, by the then Head of State, Abdusalami Abubakar. It opened its doors to patients on October 11, 1999.

The mother of the child who had intestinal congestion said she would not ask that government should close down the hospital. "But the staff should be thoroughly screened before being employed, so that they can have the best hands and people who are serious at their jobs," she said.

That's for a centre which says it is "the flagship of the medical institutions in Nigeria and endowed with sophistication in men and materials."