· We’re not being cared for- Workers
· They’re lying! - management
MILE2 AMBULANCE POINT: Turning into an abode for destitutes, street urchins and area boys
Established twelve years ago by the Bola Ahmed
Tinubu administration, the Lagos state ambulance service (LASAMBUS) is
in distress. Many ambulance post in strategic locations in the city are
now empty as drivers, health workers
and management trade blame over the deteriorating services which the
health workers claim is caused by the neglect of their welfare by
management. After several weeks of monitoring, Health reporter TOBORE OVUORIE reports that all is not well with the state ambulance services.
“Help! Help! Help! Don’t let him die!” That was the by-standers’
plea as the young man laid in the pool of his own blood in an accident
scene which occurred on January 25th, 2013 at the
Anthony-Oshodi expressway in Lagos. At exactly 6.30pm, a speeding
commercial bus had hit him while crossing the busy expressway and took
off. The bleeding pedestrian who could barely speak gasped for breath as
a crowd gathered with no one rendering any assistance to save his life.
This reporter and a few other commuters dashed to the other side of Anthony to fetch an ambulance at the nearby Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) point. Alas! The LASAMBUS point was empty.
Helpless, they returned to the scene of the accident. The young man whose identity no one could unveil was now in a critical state.
Shortly he stretched, gasped for what was to be his last breath and
gave up. Maybe he would have survived if an ambulance had been available
to fetch him to the hospital for medical attention.
That was precisely the intention of the Lagos State government when
in 2001 it established LASAMBUS in a bid to reduce the increasing
number of road, industrial and marine accidents, as well as medical
emergencies following the increasing urbanization and industrialization
of the state. Working alongside the Lagos State Emergency Medical Service (LASEMS)
as a pre-hospital care service, both services are designed to run on a
24/7 basis in order to have significant improvement in the response time
and quality of care with attendant improvement in morbidity and
mortality rates occasioned by medical emergencies.
The project has saved several lives since its inception. Statistics
from the state ministry of health reveals that the ambulances rendered
critical services to no fewer than 11,449 victims of road traffic accidents,
medical emergency, collapsed building, gunshot wound, industrial
accidents and several other cases requiring hospital and medical
attention in 2009 alone.
My investigations however reveals that this critical service is
being threatened as many ambulances stationed in strategic locations in
the city are no longer in their posts following allegation by drivers
and attached health workers of neglect by LASAMBUS/LASEMS management.
TOLLGATE POINT: Where is the ambulance?
Several visits to stations such as Anthony, Jibowu, 3rd Mainland Bridge, Tollgate, Gbagada, Abule-Egba, Mile 2 and Costain revealed
that the ambulances no longer pack there as assigned. Many of them were
seen at the LASAMBUS headquarters at the Lagos State University
Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
For instance, ever since this year, the point on the 3rd mainland bridge had always been deserted until January 17th,
when an ambulance for the first time turned up by 1.28pm. This was
after this reporter had spent several hours as usual watching out for
it. This point turned out to be better than that located under the
bridge in Costain. It had always been empty until in the afternoon of
January 26th.
Costain is however better than the point at tollgate on the way out
of Lagos state because the latter had been empty since the beginning
of the year until 2.51pm, January 24th when an ambulance pulled in for the first time but disappeared thereafter up till the moment of filing in this report!
COSTAIN POINT: Perpetually empty since January 2013
The story is different at the point located in Jibowu. Ever since
this reporter had been monitoring that point and commissioned other
people trading and working around the environment to do same, an
ambulance had never been sighted there. This is made worse by the fact
that even those who work around the environment do not know that the
point is for an ambulance. My findings reveal that people think the point is either a bus terminus like the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
or a bus-stop which is yet to start functioning. Some of the drivers
and nurses who spoke to this reporter alleged administrative hiccups and
poor staff welfare as major reasons why the service is not running the
way it ought to.
JIBOWU POINT: Now mistaken for a bus-stop
Further investigation also revealed that the ambulances are no
longer supplied fuel like they used to; thus, the drivers choose to
remain at base one – LASUTH, rather than the points, until there’s an
emergency.
“We have to manage the fuel so coming here every day may not be so possible” a driver told me on the condition of anonymity.
He continued: “there are so many things happening inside Lagos
State Emergency Medical Service (LASEMS) and LASAMBUS which I can’t tell
you but everything boils down to poor administration and it is so sad
that it is Lagosians
who will suffer. I can’t act outside instructions so journalists should
tell people to call 112 or 767 anytime there is emergency and the
ambulance at the closest base will turn up”.
Further findings by me indeed revealed neglect of the ambulance crew, especially the nurses, as a major reason the service is lagging behind.
According to one of the nurses, the points are inhabitable and
situated in unsafe locations, thus, putting the workers at risk if they
must remain at the points on a daily basis.
“If you were the one, can you stay in a place like this (the
point),” a health worker who pleaded that the point should not be named
to protect her identity asked this reporter.
“I want to believe you must have also noticed that the points are
located in very risky positions. For instance, whenever I am at the one
in tollgate or third mainland bridge, my heart skips until we leave
there. Do you know that a vehicle that lost control had once ran into us
before? This is because most of the points are located in the middle of
the road and you know how Lagos drivers, especially danfo, are.
“Besides, there are no facilities there, such as table and chair,
so we simply sit or lie down in the ambulance praying for when we would
roll out.”
This reporter shared the health workers’ experience when at the
Third Mainland point she needed to ease herself. One of the workers
simply smiled and directed her to a corner where she can be shielded by
the packed ambulance from passing vehicles.
“I hope you are just urinating. There’s no facility for you to do the big one,” she added with a mischievous grin.
“When we are pressed, even if it is to urinate, we have to start
moving around people’s homes ,” a nurse in another point told this
reporter.
“If you are lucky to be posted to a place like Jibowu, at least
there are houses around. Now imagine us being pressed on third mainland
bridge? If you were in our shoes what would be your decision after going
through this repeatedly?” she queried.
Investigations however also revealed that the ambulance crew
operate without any form of security especially at night. Asked how they
cope whenever there’s a call at night, a nurse on the Island said:
“Since I was transferred from the ward to LASAMBUS, no security
officer has ever accompanied us when we are going on emergency call in
the night. You see, this is how it happens: we receive a call that
there’s emergency somewhere, just the driver and most of the time two
nurses, who are often females, rollout to the location in the dead of
the night. We don’t know if the call is genuine or a group of
ritualists, rapists or other evil people that are waiting for us where
we are going. It is just God that has been watching over us; this ought
not to be”.
Investigations also revealed that the workers on night shift sleep
on the bare floor in a small office space in LASUTH. They have no place
to have their baths, while both male and female workers share just a
toilet!
LASUTH BASE 1: Shed-like-office where no fewer than 10 emergency workers squeeze themselves while on night shift daily
Investigations further revealed that most of the nurses with
LASEMS/LASAMBUS are more of contract staffs as their employment status
is not defined.
Most of the nurses in LASEMS and LASAMBUS were actually pulled from
the wards of various hospitals in the state. While in the hospital
wards, they belonged to the health service commission (HSC) but
immediately they were pulled off, they ceased to be and were supposed to
have been accredited by the Hospital Services which is the principal
body in charge of LASAMBUS.
Rather, the hospital service placed the nurses on six months
probation though they had been confirmed by HSC. It is now over two
years and the hospital services neither pays them call duty allowances
and have not confirmed their appointments. At the moment, these workers
do not know where they belong to because they are neither in HSC nor
Hospital Services, thus, are not being treated as emergency staffers.
Dr. Oke Osanyintolu, coordinator LASEMS however denied these
findings and all the workers’ allegations when contacted. In a combative
mood, he retorted:
“Those people are lying! That cannot be true! In short, you
(refering to me) are lying, if not, tell me the names of the people who
told you all those lies”.
Governor, Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola
Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, Dr. Jide Idris
Addressing each of the issues raised by the workers, Osanyintolu
said that the reason for the points being empty is because there have
been more emergencies in recent times.
“The numbers of emergencies have increased so they can’t be
stationed there. For instance, we now have more emergencies in
Iju-Ishaga than ever before” he disclosed.
He however said workers on night duty do not sleep on the floor and go on emergency calls accompanied by security operatives.
“It’s not true that we don’t have security personnel accompanying
them. In short, in the morning, they accompany them, in the afternoon
they accompany them and even in the night. Whosoever told you that is
lying. I repeat, give me their names if they actually told you such.
“Which officer is complaining? Our workers are not neglected, they
are well cared for. It’s not true, we have where they sleep. We have
where they eat and even shower. Maybe the people you spoke with are fake
if not, let them identify themselves. For instance, I am a proud
LASEMS and LASAMBUS employee, so don’t see how they will be working with
LASAMBUS and would not want their identity revealed.
“We work with sophisticated equipment and we are trained. Besides,
there’s room for capacity building and we even pay them health hazards
allowance” he stated.
But the workers insisted that the coordinator was being economical with the truth.
“Dr. Osanyintolu is lying and he knows it. Please, don’t disclose
our identities to them lest they will do to us what they did to over 700
doctors last year (they were sacked). He is lying because he least
expects that the press would get to know about the rot in the system”.
Another worker who equally pleaded anonymity continued: “Haba! The baba is
telling a blatant lie! Didn’t he tell you that we work over 12hours at a
stretch? Did he tell you that when we leave our homes, we don’t return
there until several hours into the next day? Maybe they pay health
hazard allowances to ghosts, certainly not us!”
No comments:
Post a Comment