Why Patients Maltreatment Must Stop

The reported account
of a woman who died after being detained in a Lagos hospital for 43 days speaks volume of the atitude of some care givers to patients in Nigeria.
According to media reports, a 44-year old Adeyemi Oduyoye, a printer lost his wife, Folake Oduyoye, 35, to what he referred to as over-priced health service of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
He said Folake was delivered of their baby at a private clinic in Lagos through caesarean section on August 30, 2014. On conclusion of the operation, it was discovered that she developed an infection. Not being able to manage the case, Folake was referred to a maternity hospital which in-turn referred her to LUTH. At LUTH,  a major abdominal surgery and other treatments were given to Folake and she was revived. However, upon her discharge on October 31, she was not allowed to go home because her family was not able to pay the balance of about N1m out of a total bill of N3,382,700.00.
The hospital management allegedly detained Folake in a ward where she was locked up until her family could pay her outstanding bill. After much appeal, the hospital management reduced the bill by 20 percent, out of which Folake’s husband was able to pay N300,000 leaving a balance of just over N800,000.
All efforts made to see to the release of his wife, according to Oduyoye, yielded no result. After two weeks in detention, Folake’s health began to deteriorate but the hospital allegedly refused to treat her with the excuse that she had been discharged. On December 13, Folake died.
Expectedly, LUTH has exonerated itself from any blame, claiming that Folake was brought to the hospital with life  threatening complications but the hospital did all that should have been done to save her.
Folake’s unfortunate death brings to the fore the awkward happenings in our hospitals, both private and public . Record shows that patients are detained in hospitals across the country because they cannot pay their bills. A story of how the Federated Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA) threatened to sue a doctor in Port Harcourt for illegally detaining a woman after giving birth in his clinic is still fresh on our minds. In some other hospitals patients are made to pay as much as N5,000 as consultation at every visit to the hospital. Let’s not talk about the exorbitant cost of their drugs and other medical services. It is baffling that anti-malaria syrup one can buy for N650 at any pharmacutical  shop is sold at N2000.00 or more at a clinic. The most annoying is the attitude of some nurse, doctors and other hospital towards patients. They treat patients with  so mcuh neglect and disrespect. It is worst when the patients are poor.
The questions then are, should hospitals allow money to stand in the way of treating indigent patients? What should be the penalty for non-payment of  hospital fees?
What should the Nigeria  Medical Association and other health professional bodies do to correct the anomalies? Discussing Folake’s dilemma on the radio a few weeks back, a medical doctor made it clear that hospitals are not running free services hence patients must pay their bills. He emphasised that hospitals  have staff  to pay and other expenses to cater for and if patients after being treated are allowed to go free of change, then  most hospitals will be grounded.
One totally agree that patients must pay their bills in order to keep the hospitals alive but shouldn’t there be some exemptions to some of the rules? In the case of Folake, we were told that her husband after struggling to pay over N2m even wrote a letter to the management of LUTH where he agreed to pay N15,000 in installments over a period of time and also got a guarantor to stand for him, still the hospital refused to accept his appeal or release his wife.
One thinks that having shown this level of commitment, the hospital should have been more considerate.
Some civil rights activists had outlined the legal implications of detaining a patient in the hospital like infringement on the patients right to life and all that, advising that the best action to be taken by the hospital is to take the patient to court to compel him to pay his bill. Some people have also reminded doctors of the humanitarian accept of their profession.
But beyond all of that, there is need for the review of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), so that it can cover everything. As it is now, the scheme seems to be an elitist thing, known and beneficial to only a privileged few. There is no doubt that when there is proper, effective health insurance scheme that caters adequately for the generality of the people as it is obtainable in other countries, the ugly cases of patients trying to escape from hospitals after treatment or patients not being able to foot their medical bills will be minimized. Then there will be no need for illegal imprisonment of patients in hospitals.

Calista Ezeaku