…as patients lament workers’ ‘careless’ attitude
With the shortage of essential drugs that has hit the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, patients, especially those on admission, have continued to express serious concern over the development.
A visit by our correspondent to the two pharmacies at LASUTH revealed that patients still get frustrated at the dispensing counters at both the fee-paying and free health pharmacies as the usual response from the pharmacists remain, “We don’t have these drugs.”
Aside from that, patients also lamented that services, especially in emergency cases, were always initially delayed before treatment or admission processes commenced. The hospital staff were also found to be unfriendly and hostile.
A relation of a patient at the Medical Emergency Ward, Mrs. Ugo Umoka, whose husband is being treated for stroke at the hospital, expressed concern over the current drug shortage at LASUTH.
She described the situation as “very dangerous for patients,” especially those in need of emergency treatment.
Umoka, who had five drugs on her prescription list, said she was able to get only one of the drugs at the hospital, saying she was told to rather go to the Alimosho General Hospital to check if she would be able to find the drugs to buy over there.
She said the fact that patients hardly got drugs at the hospital after waiting on long queues to see doctors was a sign of a weak health system.
This little girl is on referral from a private hospital. We have just seen a paediatrician after waiting for four hours. We came to the hospital some minutes before 6am because they say it is on first come first served basis
“I spent my new year here with my husband, who has been in coma since December 30, 2017. All we have been doing is series of tests but to get the results from the laboratories has been a different matter. This is a matter of life and death and yet the doctors and nurses are not responding to my questions. What is the essence of having hospitals when they cannot dispense drugs to the patients they attend to?” she said.
Our correspondent caught up with another visibly angry mother as she walked out of the Paediatric Ward of the hospital. She identified herself simply as Monsurat and said her daughter had just been placed on admission, but she was required to go and take a test outside the hospital and the nurse that was assigned to go with her to the laboratory for the test had been exhibiting alleged lackadaisical attitude.
“This little girl is on referral from a private hospital. We have just seen a paediatrician after waiting for four hours. We came to the hospital some minutes before 6am because they say it is on first come first served basis. We have been subjected to series of tests and drugs, yet we don’t know the way forward as we cannot get some drugs prescribed. Up till now, we are still expecting them to come and tell us what is actually wrong with my child,” she said.
She said when she attempted to see the LASUTH Chief Medical Director to complain about the treatment given to patients at the hospital, she was told to just go and buy her drugs outside as such complaints would not solve her problem.
She lamented that if she had known that the hospital would not dispense drugs, she wouldn’t have wasted her time taking her child to LASUTH.
A civil servant, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that in December 2017, he was at the hospital to treat an ear infection, but he was surprised that the only drug required for his treatment was not available at the LASUTH pharmacies.
“Last month I was here, though it was only one drug that the doctor prescribed, I had to buy it for N700 from a pharmacy outside because I could not get it at the hospital’s pharmacy,” he said.
He noted that in the first week of January too, when he asked for the drug at his second appointment with the doctor, the drug was still not available.
He added that when he went to the hospital in December, he was not impressed initially because it took him time to get treatment but he eventually did.
He said, “The same thing happened again today after it happened last month,” he said, explaining that that was the second time in two months that he was forced to buy drugs from private pharmacies outside the hospital.
“I understand that the state government has been trying in terms of subsidising health services given residents, but having drugs at the hospitals should not be a problem for them. Despite the fact that at LASUTH they have complaints boxes and redress boxes at each medical unit, the staff members are still lackadaisical.
“Some of them do not care to know the situation surrounding their work; as a result, any emerging issue like drug shortage, does not receive prompt response. Management of the hospitals is partly responsible for drug shortage in the health facility because most of them are unaware of what is happening around them.’’
Another patient at the hospital, however, commended the management for its efforts at ensuring standard health practice, but added that more was desired.
“We want Governor Ambode to look into this issue seriously,” he said.
Efforts by our correspondent to get the reaction of the LASUTH Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Ronke Bello, to the various complaints by the patients, proved abortive.
Bello said it was only the hospital’s chief medical director that had the authority to speak on the
matter.
“Whatever question you want addressed, you should write to the CMD, who would answer queries. I am a civil servant, I am not in a position to answer the question about people’s complaints or grieviances,” she said.
