One of the many laboratory centres in Benue State where hapless patients are either maimed or killed. Photo: ICIR
MANY indigent residents of Benue State are dying at the hands of unqualified medical personnel due to a shortage of qualified medical doctors in most rural communities in the state. Auxiliary nurses and laboratory scientists across the state posing as medical doctors often send hapless patients to their early graves.
In part two of this report, Ameh EJEKWONYILO shows why the people of Benue state are helpless.
GYOH who once chaired the MDCN noted that: “There is a regulation which demands that clinic should be set up by a qualified doctor. It follows that, if there is any malpractice in that clinic, the doctor will be liable and be subjected to discipline by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (DMCN). Therefore, clinics are registered by nurses and ward attendants who persuade the doctor to agree that the clinic belongs to them (the doctor) so that the clinic can be registered.”
The retired surgeon said the problem with the registration authorities is that “they don’t check the background; they don’t inspect, they don’t demand to know what is happening in that clinic.
“So, what happens is that once a doctor has put his signature and collects some money from whoever (nurse or ward attendant) registering the clinic, that is the end; he (the doctor) never remembers that a clinic was registered in his name. The practitioner who may be a nurse, a laboratory attendant or even somebody who is just blatantly fearless carries on the activity. He doesn’t receive a visit from the doctor under whose signature that clinic was opened. And the authorities don’t bother to inspect or find out what is happening in various clinics in the state.”
Gyoh also blames the regulatory authorities who are lax with registration of medical facilities in the state.
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