Some hospital staff have been suspended over alleged gross misconduct and negligence towards a patient in Calabar, Cross River state. It was gathered that on Friday evening, a pregnant woman in labor was brought to PHC Mayne Avenue.
Rather than hospital workers helping her into the labor room, they demanded for N20,000 for surgery and allegedly pushed the woman out of the facility when she didn’t pay despite her pain. It was alleged that a trained nurse named Eme Bassey used mop stick to beat the woman, claiming that she bit her hand with her teeth..
The pregnant woman went to the grass in front of the facility where she struggled on her own to deliver her baby and was aided by a member of the community and other passer by. When finally the woman put to birth, the youths in the community went into the health facility to move the said nurse out to ensure she assisted the woman. It was then she reluctantly came out to help the woman deliver her placenta and finally let her into the facility.
The Director General of Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu when called, arrived the facility in complete shock that women could give such treatment to a fellow woman. The DG who was in tears said she had warned some health workers time without number to treat patients with right attitude but the have refused to change.
“ I spend my time going from community to community to plead with women to leave Traditional Birth Attendants, Prayer houses and homes to deliver in Health facility, then a woman shows up in a health facility and she is beaten and pushed out, what worse treatment could a human give to another human?, this kind of wickedness is unheard of, this health workers will be used to set example for others who have refused to do the work which they are paid to do”
The DG, has with immediate effect suspended all the staff involved and the PHC coordinator who supervises then. All staff involved are to face disciplinary committee and night face tough sanctions including dismissal if the board so decides.
The woman has been admitted and the DG has provided for cloths for her and her baby as well as other provisions she requires to care for the baby.