By Mohammad Ibrahim
Kaduna (Nigeria) — Shortage of manpower, especially Doctors to look after patients at General Hospital Rigasa, a rural community in Kaduna, north west Nigeria, has forced patients on admission to abandon their beds.
Sources in the Hospital say only a female Doctor, who is also the hospital Medical Director and two other National Youth Service Corp member Doctors attend to over 150 people who visit the hospital daily.
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According to the sources, majority of the patients that visit the hospital for treatment are poor people who can’t afford going to private hospitals.
A visit to the hospital showed how patients spend hours on queue waiting to see the doctor on duty.
Those on queue waiting for the Doctor were mostly women and children, while those in serious pains lied on benches.
A man who brought his mother, but didn’t mention his name lamented on the situation, “We came here as early as 6:am now it’s already 10: am and we are yet to see the doctor.
“The only problem with this hospital is shortage of Doctors, because people come here for treatment, but because there are no doctors to attend to them, they move elsewhere, “he said.
An elderly man too, who brought his daughter said, “The truth is Rigasa General Hospital need more doctors because we are really suffering before we see a doctor.
“I brought my daughter who was sick but no doctor is here to see her and you can see the crowd yourself. I think government need to urgently do something about it, “he said.
Aliyu Suleiman a resident of Rigasa who once had his wife admitted in the hospital has this to say, “The hospital has a good structure, but lacks man power. If not for the Medical Director that is very hardworking many people would have abandoned the hospital completely.
“When my wife was admitted the MD was the only person attending to patients, going round wards to check on other patients on admission. If not for her, I don’t know what would have happened to people like us, ” he said.
It was also gathered that the hospital management charge only five hundred naira as bed fee, but still patients abscond because they can’t afford to pay.
A junior staff of the hospital who didn’t mentioned his name because he was not authorized to speak with journalists said the medical director attend to over 50 patients a day.
“The other doctor that assisted her was on annual leave and the remaining two young doctors are NYSC Corp members which means there are days they don’t come to work.
“For the nurses we only have about 15 of them including those volunteers . We need more man power because the patients are increasing everyday despite the fact that others abscond on admission.
“Yes, we heard the state government is working on recruiting more doctors but we don’t know how soon the doctors will start working. As it’s now the people have to be patient pending when the government post more doctors to us, ” he says.
Kaduna State Government has however commenced the recruitment of 1,247 health professionals to provide services in its secondary healthcare facilities across the state.
The state Commissioner for Health and Human Resources Dr Paul Dogo confirmed that the government had already recruited 100 doctors, and about 700 nurses to be posted to public hospitals across the state including rural communities.
