Misplaced aggression

Editorial

Some patients in isolation for suspected coronavirus infection had a beef recently with the conditions of their medicare. But it was the most curious targets they picked upon to vent their spleen: doctors and nurses who put their own lives on the line to give needed care to these same patients.

The angry COVID-19 patients at Kwanar Dawaki treatment centre in Kano attacked and locked up two doctors and a nurse for about four hours while protesting alleged poor conditions under which they were being kept. Reports said the medics kitted in personal protective gear were on routine ward round when the patients pounced on and locked them up in an airless room at the centre along with another patient. It was when these caregivers could not bear the suffocation and steaming heat in the enclosure any further that they forced their way out to freedom.

Melee had broken out when some patients who claimed to be asymptomatic since they were admitted to the facility demanded to be released. Some patients were also reported saying they had waited too long to be tested a second time in fulfillment of the precondition for their being discharged. One patient in particular said they had been quarantined for over a week without medical examination to confirm whether they had the virus.

The Kano incident occurred the same week that COVID-19 patients at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, protested on two separate days over claims that the conditions of their isolation were unacceptable. They had protested on Tuesday, then returned for an encore two days later saying government had not given any attention to the earlier protest.

Whatever may be the frustrations of the patients, it is reprehensible that they took them out on caregivers who are self-sacrificing heroes on the frontlines of the society’s battle against COVID-19. Since the outbreak of this pandemic, scores of medical personnel have contracted the deadly virus in line of duty, with a good number paying the supreme price. In some cases, they headed into battle as it were with bare hands – that is, even when they were not afforded sufficiently protective kits to take the plunge. Yet they tackled the need to care for patients as a compelling duty. It is simply inexcusable that these are the same stock patients would turn upon out of disenchantment with the state of treatment facilities. The Yoruba have a saying to the effect that when you weep, you do not allow your streaming tears to blindfold you from recognising your benefactor!

Having said that, the conditions of many treatment centres that have fuelled outrage among patients in recent times deserve government attention. Apparently, these conditions reflect the emergent reality whereby the spiralling case count of COVID-19 patients has overstretched government projections and created snaps now being addressed on catch-up basis. It may be in response to this challenge that government was reported late last week to be considering waiving a second test as is standard to ascertain the recovery of patients. Patients need show some understanding for this emergent scenario. But government itself must resist succumbing to overwhelming pressure and doing nothing by way of amelioration. In other words, no effort should be spared to upgrade existing facilities and accord the best possible attention to patients.

Meanwhile, this whole challenge is also linked to a prevailing tendency by some people to live in denial of COVID-19. The Nigerian case count is surging and exerting pressure on facilities because many citizens aren’t taking prescribed measures aimed at curtailment serious. Actually, it isn’t unlikely that the protests over treatment facilities are partly motivated by patients living in denial of the virus. But to keep digging when one finds himself / herself in a hole is never the wise way to go. The exit route from this pandemic lies in everyone – government and citizens – fully playing their part in the battle to halt its spread.