The controversial issue of doctors requesting payments and police reports before treatment of accident victims especially in emmergency cases has taken a twist in a social media debate after a young man whose friend is a medical doctor took to Twitter to recount a recent incident which happened in a private hospital where he works
According to him, the medical doctor was forced to pay from his salary after treating accident victim. Here’s his tweet below;
A girl was hit by a car and then rushed to my guy’s hospital Man gave her Iv fluids,blood etc and then referred her to a tertiary hospital Getting her relatives to pay the bills at the private hospital is now atomic physics Guess who’s paying the 9k out of his 80k salary?
He lost ~11% of his salary on just ONE patient He did the right thing but is it really worth it? Why should one have to spend his personal money to take care of clients
Though touched by the bitter experience of the said doctor, another doctor @DrChiemeziem while reacting to the post stated another incident which happened to him, in similar manner;
In his words;
In 2015 in the private hosp I was covering before I left for Sokoto, I sutured multiple deep knife cuts on a patient for over 4 hours. Transfused 3 units of blood, all without deposit. Man was dying. He was a cultist. His assailants butchered him and fled.
He was then kept on admission for 5 days and his friends said they’re running around for money. To help the wound, I was using our best antibiotics and analgesics. Did you know that on the 5th day, his friends (probably fellow cultists) came with weapons and took him home.
When I tried to get in their way, they told me to quietly go back to my office before sorry becomes my name. They even dished out a hot slap to one of our nurses to hasten the removal of the cannula so they could go home quick. That incident messed with my mind for many days.
This happened at Onitsha, precisely at Iyiowa Street, few minutes away from Uga junction, Head bridge. People advised us to close the case for our own safety. Boys were strolling the street as free men. Nigeria.
In Nigeria, to find a balance in this work is so difficult. Insisting that they make a deposit first while patient is dying, or throwing yourself into the work to save life and be told “we don’t have money” later. I always choose the later though, but I can’t wait to leave Naija
