UniAbuja Teaching Hospital, National Hospital deny rejecting patients over COVID-19

The University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and the National Hospital Abuja (NHA) have denied rejecting patients with other illnesses on account of COVID-19.

But Ivian Kwaghe, the Consultant Physician Infectious Disease, UniAbuja Teaching Hospital, and Tayo Hastrup, spokesperson, NHA, said this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja that their facilities were involved in such behaviours.

This is coming against the backdrop of claims by some Abuja residents that the hospitals were rejecting patients with other illnesses in favour of those with COVID-19.

Premium Times had also reported how public hospitals in Abuja were rejecting patients over fear of COVID-19.

Ms Kwaghe said the hospital was opened to all and it had been accepting patients with no COVID-19-related illnesses, stressing that those patients without COVID-19 were being managed accordingly

According to her, it is just at the COVID-19 isolation centre that non-related cases were being denied treatment, adding other patients who do not have COVID-19 are being managed in other departments of the hospital.

NAN sought to know from the infectious disease expert the time frame that the vaccine for COVID-19 to heal the disease would be out.

“We don’t know when COVID-19 will leave us, maybe we will be here for the next one year, it may be longer, nobody knows.

“And we also don’t know how soon we will get an effective vaccine, nobody can really tell how long it will be with us,” she said.

Also, Mr Hastrup said the allegation that the NHA was abandoning other patients was not true.

“We cannot turn down patients here in National Hospital, we don’t do that. Why are we here if you say we are turning down patients? We have our trauma centre, we have the accident emergency, we have the GOPD centre.

“There is no issue about NHA turning down patients, we attend to every patient. It is only that every patients that is suspected of COVID-19, we put them in the COVID-19 centres, that is what we do.’’

He said that the hospital was doing its best in the management of COVID-19-related cases and would in no way turn down patients with other illnesses.

(NAN)