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COVID-19: Doctors allowing innocent Nigerians to die, FG laments

The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Thursday raised the alarm over increasing deaths caused by rejection of patients in   the country’s hospitals.

The PTF Chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha,  at the task force  press conference in Abuja, lamented that despite the admonition of the Federal Ministry of Health,  hospitals were still rejecting non-COVID-19 patients.

Also at  the press conference, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control Director General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, raised the alarm over growing rapid test kits black market in the country.

According to him, some organisations are selling “what they call antibody tests.” He, therefore  warned that  such “antibody tests” could not give valid COVID-19 results.

Nigeria currently  has  8,733 COVID-19 patients and  112 isolation centres in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory. There are 29 laboratories, where COVID-19 is being tested.

With COVID-19 cases rising   to 8,733  on Wednesday,  the task force  warned that the government could not cope with increasing  coronavirus cases.

But on Thursday, Mustapha raised the alarm that more deaths were being recorded from non-coronavirus illnesses in the country.

It attributed this to the refusal of hospitals, including federal institutions, to treat patients for fear of COVID-19.

A man, identified simply as Joel,  lost his life after he was allegedly refused treatment by the Isolo General Hospital in Lagos State over fear of being a COVID-19 patient.

On May 6, a female artiste, Bertha Mary Okey,  lamented how hospitals refused to treat her brother, Sylvester Okey, before he died.

Mustapha, at the presidential task force briefing, said, “The PTF has received rather sadly, reports of continued refusal by medical institutions to receive and treat patients for fear of COVID-19. This has resulted in several unfortunate and avoidable fatalities and statistics have shown that there is a drastic drop in the percentage of attention being paid to other ailments not related to COVID-19.

“This situation is made worse by the fact that federal tertiary institutions have been mentioned among those rejecting patients for fear of COVID-19. This is not acceptable. We are saddened by this development.

“The minister of health has reached out to all medical directors directing them to continue providing regular medical services so that we do not end up with avoidable deaths. Truth be told, we are having more deaths from non-attendance to other diseases than even COVID-19.”

The SGF urged all the chief medical directors and private health service providers to attend to other health challenges, which had continued to confront people on a daily basis.

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