UITH of deaths, sorrow, tears

*3 babies lost to systemic rot, negligence, facilities’ failure in 6hrs

The main objective of establishing tertiary health institutions across the country obviously was to provide adequate healthcare services to the populace, especially in severe cases that could not be handled at the primary and secondary levels. Such cases, it is believed are expected to be referred to teaching hospitals for effective and proper management.

This, naturally, is because the hospitals were specifically established and equipped with arrays of state-of-the-art equipment as well as numerous personnel that specialised in various fields of studies and could handle several health challenges. Also, in terms of emergencies, the facilities are expected to have been adequately prepared in order to enable them attend to whatever case was brought to the hospitals.

To this end, tertiary health institutions, it is noted are expected to be the last hope of the citizens, especially the common man, who did not have the luxury and financial capabilities to travel out or take their sick beloved ones outside the shores of the country for medical treatment. Therefore, the teaching hospitals could not in any way be compared to other health facilities.

Unfortunately, in recent years, several reports indicated that things are not properly done or in the right way it ought to be, thereby resulting to loss of confidence in the hospitals by the masses for which they were established. The development undoubtedly could be said to have led to the astronomical increase of private hospitals across the country.

Regrettably, the situation is the same in Kwara State as many people presently preferred patronising private hospitals at the expense of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH). The list of complaints from the patients and relatives are endless, and they ranged from the nonchalant attitudes of their staffers, to especially the health staffs, erratic power supply in the hospital, the hospital’s management not maintaining hygienic environment, exploitation of the patients, among others.

Investigations by National Pilot revealed that apart from the patients’ relatives sometimes being emotional and trying to push the nurses hard to make them attend to their beloved ones, it is gathered that some of the nurses are carefree and lack decorum while on duty. On many occasions, it has been reported that some personnel do not demonstrate commitment and dedication to their jobs; therefore they tend not to care about whatever happened to the patients.

Such situation, it is gathered, had several times forced relatives to create unpleasant scenes in the hospital before they were attended to. Equally, findings revealed that the hospital’s pharmacies are not stocked with adequate drugs, thereby subjecting patients’ relatives to the agony of going as far as the main gate to get the prescribed drugs. In many cases, they have to go as far Gambari, a community in Ilorin, and quickly rush back to the hospitals.

Investigations further revealed that a larger percentage of relatives that brought patients to the hospitals go through so much stress while some noted that the hospital management colluded with the individual pharmacists to exploit them, which was the reason for the shortage of drugs in the hospital.

Narrating his ordeal to this medium, a patient who identified himself as Michael Adeboyejo, said his wife was delivered of a baby three months ago through a Caesarean Session (CS), lamenting that before the operation was carried out, he was made to go through hell as he ran helter-skelter to get some of the things needed.

"My wife was delivered of our baby through operation but that was after the nurses pushed us up and down for several hours, she nearly lost her life but I thank God that when the operation was eventually carried out, it was successful. Having been delivered of the baby safely, I heaved a sigh of relief and decided not to make issue of it again”.

"However, after a month, my wife kept complaining of abdominal pain, when the pain was becoming unbearable for her, we had to take her to a private hospital where a scan was done. I was surprised when the result of the scan showed a scalpel, one of the equipment for operation was forgotten inside her abdomen during the operation”, he said.

Similarly, another victim, Babatunde Hamzat, said recently, his wife was in labour and was rushed to the hospital from Hajj Camp area but unfortunately the medical personnel met on duty at the Gynaecology Ward were giving one excuse after the other on why they could not attend to them immediately.

"On getting to the hospital, instead of the doctors and nurses on duty to duly attend to us due to the precarious situation my wife was in, they kept pushing us from one place to the other. After some hours, they now informed me and other pregnant women in labour that they've just fumigated the operating theatre, therefore they cannot attend to us by carrying out the necessary caesarean session (CS) since it has been confirmed that my wife would not be able to deliver on her own.

"As if that was not enough, the medical personnel on duty were anything but cruel, they were busy playing games with their phones while my wife and other women in labour numbering up to ten and in dire need of operation for survival were groaning in pain”

"They neither gave us referral note nor even showed some politeness; they just treated us with disdain. I had to find an alternative so as to save the life of my wife and our unborn child. I was terrified with what I experienced there that day but thank God for my boss who had to arrange with his personal doctor that owns a private hospital along Irewolede road to save my wife”.

“It took us about 40 minutes to take my wife to the hospital but to my amazement all the medical personnel have prepared everything required to perform the operation, including getting the theatre set. So, on arrival both the nurses and the doctor were fully dressed and they just took her straight into the theatre. Before we could say Jack, my wife was delivered of a baby girl in less than one hour”

“However, I was very frustrated with what had happened earlier at the teaching hospital and you needed to see my wife, she was very happy because that was our first child. Now, I can never imagine allowing any of my family to go to that hospital again”, he added.

A similar story was shared by a member of the Kwara State House of Assembly representing a constituency in the Kwara South, whose daughter lost her child to nonchalant and careless attitudes of the medical staff at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital recently.

Narrating the family’s ordeal, she lamented the bad conditions at the tertiary healthcare facility, which she noted eventually led to the death of her grandchild.

According to her, my daughter has earlier been delivered of a baby boy at a private hospital in the town. Although, the pregnancy was overdue before the baby was born but she gave birth successfully to a baby boy.

However, not long after she gave birth the hospital referred them to UITH for further treatment. But on getting there, the parents met the doctor on duty sleeping in his car while the nurses collected the baby and put him in the incubator for her mother to rest.

The parents were not allowed access to the baby again since they arrived at the hospital in the night. Though, it is not as if the baby was premature but the nurses said it is for the mother to be able to rest.

By 3.00am, the generating set went off and since then the whole place was in total blackout but unfortunately before daybreak, the baby had turned black and finally died as a result of bleeding.

Regrettably, other two families lost their babies through the same condition. Though, they are premature and died as a result of no fuel to power the generator. You can imagine what will be going through everybody’s mind about the hospital because the incidents are irreversible.

For them to power the generating set became problematic as they were complaining of not having fuel. All efforts to persuade them to find solution to the problem proved abortive and we eventually lost our babies.

Meanwhile, another patient, who does not want her name in print, shared another angle to the story, saying she was fortunate enough to have undergone a successful surgical operation in the facility. However, she had another experience entirely different in the facility.

She explained that whenever patients finished bathing in the ward, they have to take bowl to empty the bathrooms in order to be useful for another person because the water drainer does not function.

Another patient’s relative, who also lamented the situation his wife passed through at the hospital, said an operation was performed on his wife and after it was done successfully, she was transferred to the ward.

He said further that while at the ward, they later discovered that the roof was seriously leaking, lamenting that whenever the occupants above them had their bath or there was rainfall, those in the middle floor received the ‘lash’.

He explained that relatives in the ward would have to move their patients from one end to another in order to escape the ugly scenario.

Sadly, this medium observed that the hospital management has not been maintaining a hygienic environment. A visit to the facility’s surrounding portrays it in bad light in view of the status it has attained in the society and the expectation from the public.

It is observed that majority of the toilet facilities in the hospital are nothing to write home about. The odour oozing out of the facilities could cause health hazard. Though, the toilets are cleaned on daily basis, especially when the cleaners resumed duty in the morning. However, as soon as it gets late, it was always very difficult to use the toilet again. Hardly, could passers-by pass through the facilities without covering their noses due to the obnoxious smell.

Unarguably, the teaching hospital is going through difficult time due to erratic power supply to the facility. As a result of this trend, the hospital had on many occasions referred patients to the newly renovated Ilorin General Hospital for surgical operation and other private hospitals in the metropolis.

A senior medical staff at the Ilorin General Hospital, who said he was not allowed to comment on the issue, confirmed that as a result of the epileptic power supply at the UITH, “we have been experiencing an increase in patients’ inflow here because UITH is not having it good regarding power supply”.

Several efforts made by our correspondents to get the hospital management’s reaction to the development proved abortive. The Head, Information Unit of the hospital, Mrs Funmilayo Omojasola, had earlier been called for the reaction on the sorry state of the hospital she promised to brief the CMD on appropriate reaction to this paper’s inquiry to the issues raised.

However, when she was called again last week, she said, she was on leave and directed our reporters to the CMD’s office if they could be attended to.

On Tuesday, when National Pilot approached the facility again, the person acting for the Head, Information Unit, who simply identified himself as Bodunde asked our reporters to write letter to the management before they can be attended to.

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