Bayo Ohu, a journalist with The Guardian, died from gunshot wounds inflicted by assailants who invaded his Lagos residence in September 2009. He was quickly rushed to the hospital, but medical staff on duty refused to admit him for treatment. Their reason? The relatives did not come with a police report. While his relatives were making efforts to take him to another hospital, he died on the way.What does the law say?Any hospital in Nigeria whether public or private shall receive and accept for immediate treatment of anyone with a gunshot wound, a person with a gunshot wound should be given adequate treatment without an initial monetary deposit; and that a person with a gunshot wound shall not be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment or torture by any person or authority including the police or other security agencies.
The HospitalThe Police
IGP Kayode Adeolu EgbetokunRecently, the Inspector General of Police, Dr. Olukayode Egbetokun, ordered all hospitals and all medical personnel across the country to treat gunshot victims without asking for a Police report. The directive, based on the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017, was contained in a Police internal memo dated October 25, 2023, and signed by the erstwhile Force Principal Staff Officer, COMPOL Olatunji Disu. The memo was addressed to all Deputy Inspectors-General of Police, Assistant Inspectors-General of Police, Commissioners of Police and the Commandants of Police Colleges in Ikeja, Kaduna, Oji-River, Maiduguri and Enugu.Medical experts have asked aggrieved patients with strong cases of rejection by doctors or hospitals to write to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and the Nigerian Medical Association for investigation and disciplinary action where necessary.“At Garki Hospital, we don’t reject patients either for inability to pay or any other reasons. When for instance, available bed spaces are all occupied by patients receiving care, and this often happens, we will attempt to administer some first aid and then refer. We have no reason to reject any patient,” he said.
Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate.Photo:TwitterGarki Hospital, which in 2008 got accreditation to operate the health insurance scheme, currently has one of the largest numbers of enrollees in the FCT and accepts secondary referrals from other facilities. The hospital is also the only facility that carries out highly specialised surgery under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). For example, several NHIS enrollees have had hip and knee replacement surgeries done in Garki Hospital.The hospital has over 235,000 registered patients, which in
clude 33,906 NHIS enrollees spread across 55 Health Maintenance Organisations (HMO). Under the FCT Health Service Scheme (the FCT’s version of social health insurance), the hospital attends to 8,139 enrollees from three HMOs. There are about 1,831 private health insurance enrollees spread across 35 organisations and it offers corporate services to 10,502 persons from 16 registered organisations.• Osuji wrote from [email protected]