Lagos father shares heartbreaking experience at Meran Primary Health Centre (Photos)

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In a recent incident, a Lagos father, Moleed B. Mohammed, has shared his distressing experience at the Meran Primary Health Centre, revealing significant issues with the hospital’s conduct.

The father, who visited the hospital at 5:00 am on August 28, 2024 for his daughter’s high temperature, encountered serious concerns about the professionalism of the staff.

According to Mohammed, upon arrival, he found no doctors available and a cleaner praying. When he called the complaint number on the wall, the response from the staff was far from helpful.

He narrated:

Bros, there’s a concern that’s troubling me about this general hospital. It’s too much; the way nurses turn themselves into demi-gods due to the hardship people are going through needs to be addressed with a microscopic eye.

Imagine a nurse ignoring people because they don’t have money and talking rudely to them when they call the complaint number on the wall.

I think the ethics of workers are being overlooked, and people act poorly because they feel they know someone at the top who gave them their job. It’s unfair and unprofessional. I believe health practitioners should be the most caring and concerned, calm people, not adopting the “area boys” approach seen around this Meran Hospital.

I went to the Meran Primary Health Centre opposite Ojokoro Estate today at 5:00 am because my daughter hadn’t slept the previous night due to a high temperature. Upon arriving at the hospital, I met a cleaner praying. I asked for a doctor, and she said I should wait until 8:00 am. I wondered why there was no doctor available. I saw a number on the wall for complaints, so I called it. The doctor (Dr. Rahman) responded well and asked me to pass the phone to someone. At that moment, the pharmacy personnel arrived at 8:00 am, and I gave her the phone. She started responding as if she had been attending to me earlier. When the doctor arrived, he attended to me and gave me another prescription, which I took to the pharmacy. Out of anger at me calling the complaint number, the pharmacy staff billed me excessively. When I questioned the amount, she immediately asked if I wasn’t ready to leave her office as she needed to attend to other things. I told her she was rude for acting this way; professionally, there is an approach. She flared up, saying if I knew how to call, I should call her superior again. I got angry and said I would slap her if she spoke to me like that again. She started raising her voice, and the other nurses also came in, supporting her. The doctor calmed me, telling me to focus on my daughter’s health and not on them. I told him their behaviour was not medically professional. He understood and asked another nurse to fix a drip for my daughter. She did it as if she were angry, repeatedly sticking the needle in my daughter’s hand, looking for a vein. The area immediately swelled up. I asked her to stop, and the doctor decided to attend to my daughter himself. He placed it perfectly on the first try and asked if I was comfortable with that. I said no problem if it was him. He then gave me options, saying that a drip was not compulsory if she could eat. He gave her an injection; she slept, woke up, and ate eggs and tea. He also gave her another injection, which helped her. He stayed with me to handle the payment and to sort out the rest. I am a working-class person and a business owner.

If the doctor had not been professional, I would not have allowed my child to be treated there.

Additionally, the father reported a distressing incident involving another woman who was turned away without treatment due to lack of funds.

Also read: ‘REVEALED’ Nigerian health workers collect bribes, issue COVID-19 cards to patients without vaccination

Yesterday, a woman came for treatment without funds. She left crying without being attended to, while the nurse turned it into gossip, jest, and mockery, inflating the prices of medicines and charging for small items like hand gloves (100) and cards.

I believe health practitioners should be calm, compassionate, and subtle in their

approach when dealing with grievances from caretakers or guardians of patients. However, the “area boy” approach some apply shows they lack health practitioner ethics, which questions the employment criteria they met.

While the president is trying to make things work, some individuals like these give the sector a bad image by inflating drug prices and lab test prices. They even negotiate prices with you. If you are short of funds, they will not attend to you or offer a more flexible payment plan; they will outrightly ignore you. Is this how health practitioner ethics are supposed to be?

He pleaded with the Lagos State government and other relevant authorities to intervene.

I’m just calling on the superiors have a total review of the employees ethics of works, the medical centre is not a place you talk to people anyhow because they’re financially unstable. There should be some sort of payment options for working class/business owners, apart from HMO.

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.