Patients at public hospitals across Nigeria have lamented over the poor state of facilities and inhumane treatment they are subjected to by health workers in the course of seeking medical treatment.

Recent investigations conducted by The Punch in some teaching hospitals across the country revealed that majority of the sick, particularly inpatients, are enduring double trouble which is adding to their pains.

The patients said some of the problems they encountered include sleeping on bare floors and smelly rooms, following a shortage of bed spaces; inadequate medical personnel and equipment to treat patients, as well as gross insufficiency of basic facilities that can make their stay in hospitals worthwhile.

At the Abubakar Tafawa Belewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, a public servant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, criticised the medical attention given to his sick son at the hospital.

He said when his 18-month-old son was ill and his wife took him to ATBUTH on April 12, there was no bed space for the little boy.

Another Bauchi resident, Fatima Idris, who also spoke to one of our correspondents, described her experience at the teaching hospital as bad when she took her father-in-law to the hospital.

“They transferred us to a place called Sami-Sami ward and immediately we were transferred there, we were not taken to the main ward. What they did was that they took us to one small room and the whole place was smelly and there was no light there.”

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Alkali Mohammed, said ATBUTH had its challenges like other public health institutions.

He said,

“As far as bed space is concerned, I am not surprised. We don’t have spaces often. It is not news. One has to look at the circumstances we are in. Agreed, we are a 700-bed hospital, but if you look at the catchment population we are serving, I will say Bauchi has inadequate hospitals.”

Investigations at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, revealed that the institution was battling with problems of insecurity and lack of water supply.

On several occasions, both patients and medical staff have been attacked by armed robbers inside the hospital as a result of inadequate security.

A relative of a patient at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, who identified herself only as Chinenye, told The PUNCH that mosquitoes bite at the hospital remained a major problem for patients and workers.

At the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), both the patients and medical doctors complained of the absence of streetlight which, he said, had worsened insecurity around the health facility.

WuzupNaija reports that the high level of insecurity at LUTH recently caught public attention when a House Officer at LUTH, Dr Stephen Urueye died a few weeks ago after he was stabbed by some hoodlums near the hospital’s gate, at Idi-Araba, Mushin.

The President, Association of Resident Doctors, LUTH, Dr Kayode Makinde, told The PUNCH that there was the need to beef up security and provide light in the area where the medical doctor was recently killed by robbers.

Makinde told The PUNCH that the problem of patients not getting bed spaces was because the facility had been overstretched.