Emergency patients lament poor attendance at Army hospital

Criticism has continued to trail the slow response of health personnel to accident and emergency cases at 44-Army Reference Hospital in Kaduna.

Families of patients with emergency cases, who spoke to our correspondent on Monday in Kaduna, lamented the slow response in the hospital.

An accident patient, Danladi Samuel, who asked that his name be changed, said he and his sister were brought to the hospital after they were involved in a road accident, but said it took over two hours before they were attended to.

The Good Samaritan who took both victims to the hospital said such attitude by health workers will discourage rescuers from assisting accident victims and will also encourage heat and run.

“We brought them in a coma, hoping that they will receive quick and better medical attention in a military hospital. But we were disappointed,” the man said.

“All of them were just looking at us as we struggled to bring them out of the vehicle. One of the personnel reluctantly approached us and said they do not have space for the victims because they are expecting wounded soldiers from Borno State.

“About one hour left unattended, a doctor came out to demand us to go and obtain card two blocks from the Emergency Unit were I was made to pay N3,000 for the card. The card people insisted that I must present the victims address and phone number.

“The doctor also took us through a harrowing experience of demanding for the medical history of the victims before finally asking us to get hand gloves which a packet was forced on us at the cost of N1,000 by a uniformed man at the same emergency ward.

Efforts to get the Public Relations Officer, 1 Division Headquarters, Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Abdul Usman, to respond failed as he did receive calls or a text message to find out at the time of filing the report.