NIGERIA’S DIRT DELIVERY HOSPITALS!!!

Toilet meant for patients at Sura Primary Health Centre, Lagos Island, Nigeria.

More scenes from General Hospital, Lagos Island.

Adjacent the windows of ward C1, General Hospital, Lagos Island, Nigeria. This heap of refuse has been here for over three weeks without any obvious plans of them being cleared.

Is a hospital supposed to have these grasses overlooking any of its wards? Well, this is the case at General Hospital, Lagos Island, Lagos state.

The photographs you are seeing above are some of the sights and scenes of some health facilities in Lagos state, Nigeria. In the process of providing healthcare, some of these healthcare centres succeed at worsening the health condition of patients as they operate in unkempt environments. Patients, who go to these hospitals, most times, are at risk of contracting infections and other diseases other than that which they go seeking treatment for.
Examples of such healthcare facilities are the Primary Healthcare Centre, PHC, in Ward G, Ojokoro Local Council Development Area, Ajegunle – Alakuko, Ilo, in Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area; General hospital, Lagos Island, as well as Primary Health Centre, Sura, Lagos Island.
When I visited the General Hospital, Lagos Island recently, its overgrown grasses and heap of furniture debris remained uncleared. They have maintained the same position for over three weeks without obvious plans of being cleared. Situated right in front of the windows of ward C1, these overgrown grasses which are home to mosquitoes and other rodents, ushers every visitors into the various wards and are unhealthy companions to occupants of the male wards especially ward C1.
My investigations revealed that though the ward has window nets to wade off mosquitoes, the malaria causing creatures and other rodents still find their way into the ward. No thanks to the overgrown grasses right in front of the ward windows.
Again, just adjacent ward C1 windows, main entrance to the various wards from the security point via the hospitals exit gate are heaps of furniture debris. These, like the grasses, have been there for over three weeks providing room for rodents and mosquitoes which find their way into the various wards especially ward C 1 which is closest to it.
The son to a patient who pleaded anonymity on the ground that his father is yet to be operated told me that “C1 is better though mosquitoes are seriously dealing with my father in the ward. We used to be in one other ward before and that one is worse than C1.
“Definitely, my father will take malaria medicine immediately he is discharged because there is no way he will not end up coming down with malaria after living in a mosquitoes infested place as this”.
General Hospital, Lagos island is however better than some other health facilities in the state.
When I visited Sura PHC, Lagos Island recently, patients freely urinated in the gutters in the premises of the healthcare facility.My investigations revealed that the PHC does not have a presentable toilet for patients. When I requested to use the toilet, I was initially told that there was none, but after pleading for a while, I was given a key by a staff of the centre and directed to the convenience which turned out to be an indescribable eyesore. Though without another option, I left the health centre without easing herself as the toilet is a veritable source for more infections other than the malaria I went to seek treatment for.
My investigations further revealed the two earlier mentioned hospitals are child play when compared to the PHC, in Ajegunle – Alakuko, Ilo, in Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area.
When I visited the place recently, rodents ran about freely, while there was no running water in the healthcare facility. Our findings indicate that the taps are dry because the only borehole on the premises has long stopped functioning. With no reliable source of water, patients resort to purchasing and utilising packaged water (pure water) sachets.
When I paid the centre another visit during one of its post-antenatal clinic days, I was welcomed by more dirt and unkempt everywhere. The surroundings, including the road leading up to the premises was overgrown with weeds. Mothers improvised with packaged water sachets popularly known as pure water to step down their children’s high body temperatures before injections were administered on them. This explains why the health facility’s premises is always littered with empty packaged water sachets.
If nothing is done about this when the rains come pouring, this PHC which is in disarray and unbefitting of a health institution, would be a veritable source of cholera as its septic tank (soak-away) has collapsed and toilet facilities are in severely deplorable states.
My investigations also revealed that any woman with a first time pregnancy who goes to the centre does so at her own risk as the PHC does not handle first time pregnancies.
“The only service we provide here is antenatal and post natal care. We cannot handle your case since it’s your first pregnancy” a nurse told this reporter who had made enquiries about care for her feigned pregnancy.
She however added that “you can still come if you cannot go to private hospital but when it (the supposed pregnancy) has developed to the eighth month, we would have to refer you to one hospital along Lagos-Abeokuta express way where they can take care of you”.
The Centre which was meant to care for child delivery and management of other health complications and primarily paediatric related issues is falling short of that. The healthcare facility which ought to run 24 hours daily, remains open for just a few hours and is idle most of the day. Our investigations also revealed that even when patients turn up for treatment and other services, they wait endlessly for attention.
Still baffled by the deplorable condition of the PHC, residents of Ward G, Ojokoro LCDA now doubt the safety and reliability of diagnoses and treatments carried out at the centre. Consequently, they now depend on primary health facilities at Oke-Odo, and private hospitals in adjoining communities in the neighbouring Ogun State.