FRSC And Accident Victims

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) recently warned that henceforth any hospital that rejects accident victims would have its Chief Medical Director arrested and prosecuted. It also announced that such prosecution might lead to the imposition of a fine ofN50,000 only or one year jail term.

The FRSC was obviously reacting to the increasing rate of casualties in the aftermath of auto accidents due to rejection of victims by some hospitals and medical facilities located across the country.

A similar situation prompted the Nigeria Police authorities in March 2012 to appeal to all government and private hospitals in the county to, as a matter of respect for human life, accept accident victims brought to them in critical conditions for treatment. It had earlier reversed its order against the treatment of people with bullet wounds.

Deputy Force Public Relations Officer (DFPRO), Mr. Femi Oyeleye, said then that the Police observed with dismay the uncooperative attitude of both government owned and private hospitals in receiving victims of fatal accidents. He accused the hospitals of refusing to attend to the victims, who need immediate medical attention under flimsy excuses.

We wish to commend the FRSC for this fresh initiative aimed at reducing the number of fatalities recorded from road accidents on a yearly basis. We also wish to observe that the commission has for some time demonstrated creativity in the discharge of their duties and this has paid off in no small measure.

For instance, there has been a steady decline not only in the number of auto accidents across the country since 2010, but also in the number of deaths. In 2010, there were 5,330 deaths and 18,000 injuries resulting from auto accidents alone. But in 2011, this figure came down to 4,065 deaths with 17,464 injuries.

Also in the first half of 2012, the nation recorded 1,936 deaths which amounts to 12.7 per cent reduction from 2,218 deaths that occurred at the same period in 2011.

While we commend the achievement of the FRSC and possibly the Police in this direction, we must draw the attention of the FRSC to some of the many reasons why hospitals reject accident victims so that in enforcing the new policy the predicaments of the hospitals would be understood and perhaps addressed.

The first reason is that most of the hospitals lack the capacity to handle trauma patients. Similarly, since one of the commonest causes of death is loss of blood, any hospital that does not have a blood bank already lacks the capacity to deal with such patients.

Even so, such hospitals should be duty-bound, apply first aid and refer such patients immediately because it will be an exercise in futility for a primary and possibly private health facility to spend two hours or more inviting a medical doctor or looking for blood when the patient could have been sent to a tertiary centre in a shorter time.

The second worry of hospital authorities is the issue of recovering money spent on such accident victims. It becomes important that, the FRSC gets involved in ensuring that insurance policies cover commuters and that they assist in recovering such monies to settle hospital bills.

The third reason is the fact that most hospitals would not want accident victims to die in their hospitals when they are not accompanied by their relatives. It is important that the FRSC and the Police authorities dialogue with hospital owners on this issue, at least to allay their fears.

Again, The Tide is not also unaware of the indignities some health workers may have suffered in the hands of Police authorities for treating bullet wounds in the past. To ensure that this is no longer an issue, the Police authorities should refrain from harassing medical officers for performing their lawful duties.

While we acknowledge the fact that most hospitals are privately owned and must operate within certain economic principles in order to stay afloat, we insist that such principles should run in line with humane and ethical principles that respect safety of human life above every other consideration. Even the Hippocratic oath should serve as a reminder.

All stakeholders must join hands with the FRSC at this stage to ensure that untimely deaths recorded in the thousands on annual basis is brought to a lowest possible level. The truth, of course, is that the causalities are not only those who are dead, but also their living relatives and the nation at large.