Amidst ongoing economic and social downturn in the country, at least 59 Medical Doctors have withdrawn their services at the Dalhatu Araf Specialists Hospital, Lafia, Nasarawa State over what they described as poor condition of service in the last three months.
This dearth of medical experts resulted to increased hardship in access to health care services at the hospital as patients spends days waiting to be attended to by the available medical doctors finding by WikkiTimes revealed.
The medical doctors and other health workers cited poor condition of services, non-implementation of hazard allowances and lack of promotion for years as the basis for their resignation from the state owned health facilities and look for greener pastures.
Dr. Yakubu Adeleke, the Nasarawa State President of Resident Doctors told Daily Trust that since 2022, the state government has turned deaf ears to their urgent demands which mainly centered in welfare, noting that lack of promotion provoked many to leave the service.
“Doctors in Nasarawa State have been stagnated. No promotion. Some doctors have been working for eight years without promotion”, quoted Yakubu.
WikkiTimes understand that between January to March this year, over 50 medical doctors have resigned from the state’s service, with Dalhatu Araf Specialists Hospital topping the list of affected staff.
Lack of welfare to medical doctors happened despite the fact that Nasarawa performed well in health expenditure for the first two quarters of 2023. The state spent N4.39 billion out of a budgeted N5.95 billion, translating to a performance rate of approximately 73.83%
Ruth Nama, the Public Relations Officer of the Dalhatu Araf Specialists Hospital told WikkiTimes that patients are attended to daily based on the number of available medical doctors and this translates to hardship being experienced by patients who are not aware of the changes in the hospital system.
Ruth while clarifying why some patients were not attended to by medical doctors despite spending hours and some days at the hospital waiting, said the card collection system has been digitalized and the number of doctors on call determine the number of patients to be attended to in a day.
“We just changed the system of attending to patients last week because of complains of the former manner, in which patients come to obtain number from SERVICOM Unit. Now, we made it electronic. It has been programmed in the system the number that would be seen by doctors available each day. So as patients come the sit accordingly as they arrive. Patients themselves know who is first to come and the record officers start attending to them by 7am, on first come first served basis”.
“I myself went for some days to observe how they were doing it. They cannot take more numbers than what is programmed in the system for that day, i.e, according to the number the doctors available request”.
“This method is more transparent than the former, but complains must keep coming as long as patients coming are overwhelming the number of doctors available” replied Ruth.
Patients Decries Marginalization at the State Specialists Hospital
While medical doctors continued to leave the service, patients at the Dalhatu Araf Specialists Hospital Lafia, have alleged irregularities and favoritism in deciding who will be attended to by medical doctors.
The patients who travelled from far away areas of the state complained that staff of medical records department who managed patients cards favoured their family and friends thus leaving them stranded without seeing medical doctors, this they said made them to spend huge sum of money going to and fro without receiving medical attention.
According to Malama Maryam Isa who travelled all the way from Awe town, she slept in the hospital amidst hunger but all her efforts to be attended to by medical doctors proved abortive as staff of the medical records only allowed those that they know to be among those to be attended to.
“I spent alot of money to on transport fare to come to this place. I left home and slept here with empty stomach not only that am thinking of what to eat at home but not attended to”, complained Maryam.
She alleged that staff bring in hand cards of those not within the stand of the hospital thus denying those waiting in vain despite arriving at the hospital earlier.
Malam Musa Adamu who travelled from Azara said he has to spent two thousand naira multiple times but denied seeing medical doctor due to irregularities by staff of the medical records.
Musa who appealed to the management of the hospital to look in to the matter and ensure that all patients irrespective of their social status are accorded equal treatment.
Malama Aishatu Muhammed who hailed from Tudun Kawuri village said despite leaving home around 4:00am and waited for long que but was told that she can’t be attended to some persons cards were inserted by the staff.
“We came to medical records department but they maltreated us. You can see someone whom you came before him but will be attended to and we were told that we can’t get in”, said Aisha.
They pleaded with the state government to equip General Hospitals across the state to ease their suffering in accessing medical care.
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