Following the attack on the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) in Ado Ekiti, leading to the alleged brutalisation of some health workers, the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) has solicited special insurance cover to serve as indemnity against emergency attacks and assaults.
NUAHP expressed anger over an attack on a pharmacist, Umanah Ubong when the family of a deceased patient invaded the health facility on Monday and forcefully whisked away a corpse out of the hospital, describing the action as barbaric and unacceptable.
The body, which saluted the Chairman of the Ekiti House of Assembly Committee on Health, Abimbola Solanke, for her readiness to sponsor a bill that will protect health professionals, said special insurance was urgently required to safeguard the lives of members.
The NUAHP’s National Treasurer and Chairman, EKSUTH Chapter of the body, Omotola Farotimi, said in a statement in Ado Ekiti on Thursday that such shoddy and demeaning acts shouldn’t be allowed to reoccur in the hospital.
Farotimi lamented that such inhuman acts occurring in the hospital signalled that the lives of health professionals were no longer safe on duty.
Explaining how the incident happened, NUAHP’s leader said, “Pharm Ubong was on call duty when the son of the deceased used his leg to break the door of the Pharmacy Department in the Accident and Emergency Department and harassed the pharmacist, intending to attack him.
“Unfortunately for the man, he sustained an injury to his hand with a lot of blood loss. The pharmacist was the one who used his initiative to calm the injured man and helped him stop the blood before the pharmacist escaped.
“This was highly condemnable and unacceptable by our union for this level of damage to the facilities and harassment of our members.
“We seek the intervention of Governor Biodun Oyebanji to establish a health insurance scheme for the health professionals in Ekiti State, which will serve as protection for the health professionals in the hospitals to be able to carry out their duties without fear or threat.”
Farotimi appreciated the Ekiti State government and the commissioner of police, Dare Ogundare, for restoring normalcy and making proactive efforts to arrest the perpetrators.
On how to foster and promote the health worker-patient relationship in Ekiti, Farotimi pleaded with patients’ relatives to halt the incessant harassment of workers in all health facilities, urging them to adopt civilised means to report any noticeable professional misconduct to the management.
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