NARD Strike: Patients overwhelm Zamfara Hospital

NARD Strike: Patients overwhelm Zamfara Hospital
NAN-HG-6
Patients
Gusau, Sept. 7, 2017 (NAN) As the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) continues its nationwide strike, the Ahmad Sani Yerima Bakura Specialist Hospital, Gusau, is overwhelmed with patients, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The Acting Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Oyaromade Abidemi, told NAN that since the strike commenced there were more patients trooping into the hospital and most of the wards were filled up.
“We have been receiving lots of patients since the strike commenced on Monday and some patients were asked to go to private hospitals, due to lack of bed spaces.
“All the hospital bed spaces had been occupied by the patients and we cannot discharge patients unless they are medically fit, so we had to send them to other hospitals in the state,” he said.
The medical director said that the state government had approved the construction of more buildings in the premises, which he said would have up to 96 bed spaces.
“The state government has given the go ahead for the construction of more wards, which is made up of Surgery, Medical, Paediatric and Gynaecology wards for the hospital to accommodate more patients.
“This development will help the hospital work better and stop the idea of admitting two people in a bed space, as it is usually done in the labour ward during doctors’ strike or strike by other medical personnel,” he said.
Some nurses at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Gusau told NAN on condition of anonymity that they were overwhelmed with the influx of patients to the hospital.
However the General Out Patients’ Department of the hospital recorded few patients with most of them civil servants using the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
At the Emergency Unit of the FMC, only patients with critical condition were being attended to by the medical consultants, while other wards had fewer patients.
One of the nurses at the FMC also told NAN that most cases had been transferred to the State Specialist Hospital while others had gone to private hospitals across the state for treatment. (NAN)
MOB/ABA/IFY/MST
Edited by IFY OMOWOLE/Muhammad Suleiman Tola