By Emmanuel Udom
Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, on
Monday, December 7, described government owned hospitals in Lagos, south-west
Nigeria, as slaughter slabs for pregnant women who are in labour.
Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, executive director of WARDC dropped this
bombshell when women in their thousands marched to the Lagos State House of Assembly
to demand for a probe into the 26 October incident at the Rauf/Aregbesola Health Centre in Mosan Okunola local council development
area, Alimosho, Lagos, where a woman died under labour.
According to the WARDC boss, Mrs. Omowunmi Shonuga was said to have been rushed to the hospital
on the said date by her husband, but all efforts by her husband to get the
medical officers to open the gate of the hospital proved abortive.
As it was very early, even his shouts could not get the nurses
on duty to come to his wife’s aide.
Her words: one of the hospital staff who came to him, asked him
to take his wife to another hospital. Explanations that his wife was registered
with the hospital fell on deaf ears.
Dr. Akiyode-Afolabi, said
the woman arrived at the hospital, where she had registered for antenatal care
at 5am, but met the gates locked and without any medical attention, she gave
birth in the car.
It was after she gave birth in the car that the much-needed
medical attention came, but at this stage, she had lost a lot of blood.
“She was later referred to the Igando General Hospital, but encountered delays as no ambulance was
available to transfer her and on arrival at Igando no bed space was available
to admit her,” she said.
The group also recalled how another expectant mother, Mrs. Obinna Nnanna died at the Lagos
State General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos, south-west Nigeria, after giving birth
to triplets on 23 September, 2015.
In another incident also, this time, at the Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, the protesters said in the petition that Mrs. Oduyoye Folake died after she was
detained for three months for failure to pay her hospital bills.
The protesters said further that there were several reports of
people being denied access to medical attention in hospitals in the state for
failure to bring their spouses for compulsory blood donation.
In the petition addressed to the Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, the group said that
its findings have shown that despite government’s efforts towards the reduction
of maternal death in the state, women still experienced financial,
infrastructural and institutional barriers in accessing adequate maternal healthcare
in the state-owned hospitals.
“The attitude of the medical personnel and absence of the needed
resources such as ambulance and bed spaces are factors that contributed to loss
of life.
“The right to life puts an obligation on the state to take measures
to safeguard individuals from arbitrary and preventable losses of life and this
includes protecting women against the unnecessary loss of life related to
pregnancy and childbirth.
“The acts and omission of the hospitals by their negligence
violated the right to life,” the petitioners said, maintaining that it is the
responsibility of the government to protect citizens against the loss of life
especially for women during child birth.
Akiyode-Afolabi said there was a strong obligation to ensure
that all the necessary facilities and adequate human and financial resources
were available to prevent avoidable loss of lives.
“WARDC hereby proposes that Lagos State House of Assembly calls
for a public hearing or independent investigations on the causes of maternal
deaths and the contributory factors. W we believe that the public hearing will
provide an opportunity to hear men and women, who have been affected by the
issue in Lagos State,” they stated.
Responding, Speaker Obasa, while sympathising with the families
of the women who lost their lives during childbirth in the hospitals in the
state, said the House would invite the accused hospital in Alimosho, as well as
the Executive Secretary of the Mosan Okunola LCDA over the issue.
He commended the protesters for being peaceful despite their
grievances and for taking the matter before the state Assembly.
“We will critically look at the one that happened at Rauf
Aregbesola Health Care Centre, but LUTH is not under our jurisdiction.
“That does not mean that we do not have the right to protect the
lives of the people of the state. We will write to the hospital and hear from
them too,” the Speaker said.
The Speaker said the state has primary healthcare centres in all
the local governments in the state that attend to children and women because
the crowd at the general hospitals might make it difficult for many people to
be attended to.
He also confirmed the presence of general hospitals in the local
government areas in the state.
“We are not saying whether they are free of charge or not, but
we have about 57 general hospitals in the state.
“We recently passed Health Insurance Law, where indigent people
can easily access healthcare. All these we have been doing in the interest of
our people,” he said while promising that the House would continue to care for
the residents of the state and that the lawmakers were concerned about maternal
mortality rate in the state.
“If any of our PHCs or general hospitals is not doing the right
thing, get to us because we cannot work without information. It is only when we
are well and adequately informed that we can act.
“Those who are there are being paid from tax payers’ money. So,
we have to do something about it, which is why we are here. We are representing
your interest and we will continue to do that.
“We will look at the petition and invite the necessary people
from the concerned hospitals and your representatives so that we can get to the
root of the matter and bring maternal mortality to an end,” he explained.
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