Unlawful rejection

Editorial

 

Tragically, Odiri Onosigho, a 32-year-old accountant, died from gunshot wounds after he was attacked by a gang of armed robbers on his way to work. The robbery was said to have happened “around 6am.”  He was waiting for a bus, with a friend, at First Gate bus stop, Festac, Lagos.

It is sadder that he may not have died if he had not been rejected by some hospitals, and had received prompt medical attention. According to his sister, sympathetic passersby had put him in a tricycle and rushed him to the Mother and Child Hospital, a public health facility where he was allegedly rejected on the excuse that the case was outside its remit.

“So, they left the government hospital and rushed him to a hospital, but they rejected him there too; they also took him to two other hospitals, but he was similarly rejected. All these hospitals were asking for a police report,” she said.

It was clearly a life-threatening emergency case arising from a gun attack, and required urgent medical intervention. It is disturbing that the hospitals involved failed to grasp this reality. By their inaction, these hospitals contributed to the tragedy.

This death is yet another in a long list of gunshot victims refused treatment because they could not readily supply police clearance or pay preliminary hospital charges, or could not easily do both.

Importantly, his rejection by the hospitals was unlawful. The Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017, makes that clear. The law stipulates that all hospitals in Nigeria shall accept and treat without a police clearance any person with a gunshot wound.  The law also provides that all victims with gunshot wounds shall be treated without a request for initial monetary deposits and such persons shall not be victims of any inhuman or degrading treatment.

Under the law, hospitals have the responsibility of informing the nearest police station whenever a gunshot victim is brought in and the police are mandated to immediately investigate and ascertain the cause of the gunshot wound.

Also, any person who fails to carry out a duty as stated in the Act, which leads to the death of a person with gunshot wounds, is liable to imprisonment for five years and/or a fine of N500, 000. In addition, the court may also order that restitution be made to the victim.

The downside is that the law is crying for enforcement.  A lack of enforcement encourages violation of the law.  The law is more than three years old, and should be known to hospital owners and health workers in the country. The Festac tragedy suggests that the hospitals involved did not take the law seriously. Law enforcement officials should find out what happened in this case and enforce the provisions of the law where violations are established.

Enforcement of the Act will send a clear message to hospital owners and health workers, and ensure that gunshot victims, regardless of the circumstances of the shooting, get prompt and proper medical treatment without complicating preconditions.

Beyond the provisions of the law, the Festac death showed a lack of empathy on the part of the concerned hospitals. What is expected of a hospital in an emergency, when a situation poses an immediate threat to life? For health professionals whose role is to treat the sick and injured, and prevent avoidable deaths, there is no excuse for rejecting a gunshot victim, particularly when such a rejection is unlawful under a specific extant law.

Medical authorities have a duty to ensure that health professionals are not only aware of the law concerning gunshot victims, but respect the law. Where there is proven disrespect for the law, the police should ensure that the guilty are punished, as stipulated by the law, to act as a deterrent.

from Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Politics https://ift.tt/32XtNQW
via IFTTT