About three weeks ago, I heard and read the story of a young girl in her mid-20s who died as a result of the negligence and nonchalant attitude of some hospitals in Abuja. From what I heard, they said that the lady entered a “one chance” vehicle, the “one chancers” did not just rob her of all her belongings, they also stabbed her multiple times and threw her off of the moving vehicle when they were done with her.
Some good Samaritans saw her and rushed her to the hospital since she was still alive although in critical condition with the hope that she would get urgent medical help and get stabilized.
I was told that about three hospitals turned down treating her on the grounds that they did not come with a police report and those hospitals demanded police clearance before she could be attended to. Since it was already late in the night and there was no way in hell they could have gotten a police report from any police station; from taking her from one hospital to another hoping that she could be attended to, she gave up the ghost.
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This happened in Abuja, barely three weeks ago and I’m certain you must have heard of a similar story of a robbery victim or an accident victim or someone who was shot being refused Medicare by hospitals on the grounds that the victim might be an armed robber who got shot by the police hence why the hospitals always insist on the victim providing a police report or police clearance before he or she can be attended to. These encounters have led to the loss of numerous lives and it keeps happening.
The truth is some of these hospitals are just being negligent. By the implication of the Hippocratic Oath health workers swore to, their first job is to save lives whether the patient is a criminal or not or whether there is a police report or not, that is what is expected but reverse has been the case.
In 2017 a bill was passed called Compulsory Treatment and Care for the Victims of Gunshot Wound Act 2017. By the provisions of Section One of this act, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other health outlets are mandated to treat and render every required and necessary medical assistance to any victim of a gunshot wound without requesting or demanding a police report or police clearance.
This section one provides thus; “As from the commencement of this Act, every hospital in Nigeria whether public or private shall accept or receive, for immediate and adequate treatment with or without police clearance, any person with a gunshot wound”.
Section two went on to place a duty of care and legal obligations on both hospitals and law enforcement agents to render every help necessary for the survival and recovery of a victim of a gunshot. In fact, hospitals are asked to treat every victim without first demanding a monetary deposit.
Here is the provision of Section 2
2(1) Every person, including security agents, shall render every possible assistance to any person with gunshot wounds and ensure that the person is taken to the nearest hospital for immediate treatment.
(2) Accordingly-
(a) a person with a gunshot wound shall be received for immediate and adequate treatment by any hospital in Nigeria with or without initial monetary deposit.
By reason of this act, any hospital that refuses to treat a person with a gunshot wound faces both civil liabilities from the victim and criminal liabilities from the government for their negligence.
The icing on the cake is that the Inspector General of police recently ordered the full enforcement of this act, so whenever any hospital insists on seeing a police clearance before they can attend to a gunshot victim please draw their attention to this act and also draw their attention to the current directive of the IG of police for the full enforcement of this act with no exceptions.