Edo Doctors Use Candles to Treat
Patients -
It has surfaced that Nigerian doctors in
Edo State use candles to light up
hospitals to treat patients due to
problem of electricity. File Photo Edo State chapter of Nigerian Medical
Association, NMA, has raised the alarm over
what it described as the sorry state of health
facilities in the state, regretting that doctors
are using candles in hospital wards rather
than electricity. It, therefore, urged the state government to
revamp health care facilities in the state to
stop unnecessary deaths in hospitals. The
state chairman of NMA, Dr Emmanuel
Osaigbovo, who raised the alarm while
briefing journalists in Benin City, urged the state government to declare state of
emergency in the health sector. He said: “Today, there is hardly any
functional ward that is befitting for the
people to recover from their infirmities. The
wards are dilapidated and ironically pose a
major health risk to those who are being
cared for and those who render services therein. “In some of these obsolete facilities,
doctors in their usual zeal to work resort to
the use of candles and personal rechargeable
lanterns when the authorities fail to provide
basic electricity. The buildings are falling
apart in their numbers due to lack of maintenance. “We seriously hope that there is no
collapse of one of those buildings on people
who have come to the hospital to get better
or on those who have come there to make
people feel better. There is no greater catastrophe than that.
“The theatres and laboratories are at best
skeletal in the services they render due to
lack of basic equipment and consumables.
Patients have to seek help in peripheral
facilities and most times fall into the hands of quacks.