Tag: Abuja

Activities at the government hospitals have been crippled following the commencement of the indefinite strike action of medical doctors.

Patients in government hospitals were yesterday thrown into confusion as doctors refused to attend to patients.

The nationwide strike has also left many patients stranded due to quick discharge of patients in various hospitals.

Patients who were discharged complained that the strike took them by surprise.

The nurses who are up in arms with the doctors have taken over the running of activities at the hospitals.  In most hospitals visited in Abuja, the nurses were seen attending to patients.

However, patients with serious issues are been moved to private hospitals for medical attention as at yesterday sone of the hospitals have stopped admitting fresh cases.

At Wuse Hospital, the situation is not different as Nurses were seen attending to patients on admission. Some of the doctors who were around only offered skeletal services. The hospital which used to be jam-parked was deserted, with the nurses been the most visible health workers on ground.

At the National Hospital, the situation is not different. Most of the Patients were caught unaware and are throwing into a confused state.

Many have resigned to fate as they said they don’t know what to do with the strike as they claimed that they never prepared for it.

While some who could pull resources together were seen making preparations to move to private hospitals.

However, in the meantime, the National Hospital Management according to its spokesperson, Tayo Haastrup, has put measures in place to take care of patients pending when the issues between the doctors and Federal Government are resolved.

He also assured that while patients with lesser health challenges will be discharge, those under critical conditions will continue to receive attention.

He said: “What the management of the hospital has put in place is to make sure that are in the wards are well taken care of and also the ones that are due for discharge we will actually discharge them. But the ones that are actually in critical conditions, we can’t be discharging a patient that is in Intensive Care Unit (ICV) and we can’t be discharging a patient that cannot walk in orthopaedic or in a very serious conditions. We can’t do that. We will make arrangement to make sure that we take care of them. So that is the situation that is on now in the National Hospital. If you see people that have been discharged, that means that their cases are not serious, they are very stable and they can go home.

“Our patient that are in ICU are there, where do we discharge them.

We have put machineries in place to take care of the patients that are in the ward.”

On what kind of measures the hospital has in place, Haastrup said: “Assuming we have an accident victim that is about to die which is an emergency, NMA will not say we should not take care of such. Probably the senior ones. The Consultants are expected to even attend to such patients to stabilise them. The purpose of doctors is to save lives. A doctor cannot see a patient dying and refuse to attend to him.

On impact, he said:” There is no way you will not have any impact when there is strike in the health sector. It has to do with lives. There is no way one or two people will not die in this process. Even some other hospitals that don’t have good ICU, of course taking a patient out of such places, before they get to other hospitals, they might give up. It cut across everywhere.

The most important thing is for our elderly citizens to intervene into is so that we can come around it and come back to work. It is having an impact and it will definitely continue to have an impact if urgent measures are not taken.

At Asokoro General Hospital, a source who didn’t want his name disclosed said management meeting was held yesterday morning in order to reduce the impact of the strike.

Our reporter learnt that Doctors who were around the hospital only assisted the management in discharging patients while others who came to observe happenings in the hospital closed earlier than the normal closing time.

Speaking about the outcome of the meeting, he said: “the management decided that House Officers should attend to critical cases in the ward while other patients will be discharged.

“Only Senior doctors and Consultants are excepted from the strike for now because of the court order.

“The management also decided that emergency cases only will be attended to as from today (yesterday) and that includes bomb blast victims.

“Roaster has been made for House Officers who will be attending to emergency cases throughout the period of the strike.

He added: “For the period of strike, clinic will not open.

He was optimistic that the strike will not last long.

“I am optimistic that the strike will not last long because it will affect a lot of people and I am sure the Federal government will yield to the demands of doctors, which will help in restoring sustainable sanity in patient care in Nigerian hospitals.”

 

 

 

 

 

Abuja’s major market was shut down yesterday for four hours following a bomb scare.

The Wuse market remained shut till 10.am.

The Garki Ultra-Modern Market was also not opened —no thanks to  an intelligence report of a bombing plot.

Traders were barred from entering as security operatives swept the environment.

Policemen from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) barricaded the market in Wuse.

Abuja police spokesperson Altine Daniel said the temporary closure was due to intelligence report received by the police.

About two months ago, there was an explosion at the Nyanya Motor Park, leading to the death of 70 people.  Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the blast.

When the Wuse market was eventually opened, security operatives with bomb detectors were conducting searches at the gates .

Operatives at the market’s security check point, told our reporter that the checks were precautionary moves.

One of them, who pleaded not to be named, said at about mid day: “Contrary to reports flying around, we did not catch any suicide bomber. Security operatives acquired intelligence that bombs might be set off in any of the markets in Abuja. To ensure the safety of the market, we shut it down until a security sweep had been done to ensure that the environment was safe.

“Now we are searching everyone that comes in to ensure that no one walks into the vicinity with explosives but business has resumed at the market as usual and there is nothing to fear.”

One of the traders who gave his name simply as Obinna said: “It is good they are doing this. Nigeria is no longer safe and no one is to be trusted. We are happy over the new development and everybody is on the lookout for suspicious moves.”

Another trader, Abdullahi, said: “After the Nyanya blast and everything happening these days in Nigeria, I wonder why it took security operatives this long to know that our markets needed security. This is a good development and I hope that they won’t get tired and relax. They need to check everyone coming into this market because this is a very busy market and women’s bags most especially, should be checked because we can never know what they carry in them.”