GENERAL HOSPITAL IQUITA-ORON: A DEATH TRAP?
:::My tour, diary, and appeal:::

Joshua Osung, Uyo.

Three months ago, it was unavailability of a spare tyre...reason why the ambulance couldn't be used after a referral note was issued. We ended up losing a life...so sad!!!

This write up shouldn't have popped up now, it should have been three months ago but I decided to exercise a little patience and hope things improved...quite frankly right now, I am fed up because the rate at which people's lives are put in jeopardy at General Hospital, Iquita-Oron calls for more than just an alarm.

When the "new", "improved", and "remodeled" hospital was set for commissioning by His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel, we all leaped for joy hoping it will be a total improvement from what it used to be. Well, we are disappointed! I wouldn't blame our governor because he doesn't possess the Omni present and Omniscient qualities. He actually had people he entrusted those responsibilities on to. But why he decided to commission an ordinary repainted project is still unfathomable.

We expected that such "remodelling" could cut across every facility in that environment, qualifying it of the description ''hospital". My recent experience in a supposed life-saving environment isn't something to write home about. It was bitter, it was annoying, it was unpalatable, and very inimical to human health.

How patients lose their lives at the said hospital:

• EMPTY PHARMACY: One wonders how patients with serious and emergency health issues can survive in a hospital that operates with a virtually empty pharmacy...you have to run helter skelter around town and many times travel to Uyo looking for a particular drug that is needed immediately. That is one among many unpleasant situations that patients are subjected to, and I tell you that a whole lot of lives have been lost while awaiting the return of their loved ones embarking on medicine search...sad!

• A TOTALLY MESSY ENVIRONMENT: No one expects to contact a new ailment while trying to get rid of one. It should be viewed as very strange if a hospital environment and wards become a global convention point of mosquitos. Littered garbages because of overrun trash cans right in front of wards with no one to evacuate them are almost normal there. There are also cases of severe heat and non-functional water dispensers in the limited number of toilets found in-wards. No fumigation, no mosquito nets and very tiny number of waste carriers. Pathetic!!

• SERVICE DELIVERY AND POOR STAFF ATTITUDE: A great percentage of nurses and some other staff in the general hospital need to be sent back for training at least on manners and consciousness of duties. Attitude put up by some of those in the categories aforementioned do not in any way depict those who have even seen, not to talk of swearing the Hippocratic oaths (though there are still a number of better and well trained ones).

• AMBULANCE SYSTEM: Let me start by saying that there is absolutely no working transport or ambulance system in Iquita General hospital. We all know that at a case of referral, the life of a patient depends on a working, standby, and ever ready ambulance. Three months ago, the ambulance could not be used because of spare tyre. Day before yesterday, it became a battery problem.

#The_story: Immediately we got a referral note, we approached the ambulance driver who first informed us that there was an instruction on ground that the ambulance shouldn't leave the hospital premises because of COVID-19. Perturbed at such insensitive edict, we later found out that it was only the secretary of the hospital that could issue an approval for the vehicle to be used...the approval was finally secured and guess what? The issue of dead battery surfaced. Offering to donate a battery from one of the available private vehicles, the driver bluntly told us that fixing the battery will take up to a hour...by inference, a task he wasn't ready to undertake. Well, instead of losing our loved one, we resorted to improvise as we suspended the front seat in one of the private cars available, placed our patient, and off we went.

• MY OTHER WORRIES: I might not be vested in the medical field but this also disturbs me. I find it hard to also understand why patients have to be the ones to provide minor medical amenities like gloves and syringes for doctors or be left unattended to, and possibly die if unable to provide the aforementioned equipments in government owned hospitals. Where then is the value for the lives of citizens?

This write up isn't to vilify the efforts of the government in place, neither does it represent a see-no-good theory as regards the importance of the General Hospital, Iquita-Oron. It only serves to raise the consciousness of the fact that a lot of works centering on facilities upgrade and improvement need to be done at least to avert many avoidable loss of lives of citizens.

Thank you!

Joshua Osung,
Oron, Akwa Ibom State
(joshuaosung4edu@gmail.com).