PTF condemns hospitals’ refusal to treat patients on COVID- 19 fears
THE Presidential Taskforce on COVID- 19 ( PTF) has condemned the continued refusal by hospitals and even federal tertiary institutions to treat patients of fear COVID19, lamenting that the development has resulted in several avoidable fatalities.
Chairman of PTF, Boss Mustapha who stated this at the daily media briefing in Abuja, lamented that Nigeria was having more deaths from non- attendance to other diseases than the COVID- 19 pandemic, adding that the reason for the emphasis on the virus was because it was a pandemic and if not contained could wipe out large segments the country’s population. Mustapha, who is Secretary to the Government of the Federation ( SGF) urged all Chief Medical Directors ( CMDS) and private health service providers to tackle other health challenges, stressing that the guidelines for dealing with patients presenting symptoms of coronavirus were available and if applied by healthcare providers would present lesser risks of exposure.
He said, “Statistics has shown that there is a drastic drop in the percentage of attention being paid to other ailments not related to COVID- 19. This situation is made worse by the fact that federal tertiary institutions have been mentioned among those rejecting patients for fear of the disease. This not acceptable, we are saddened by the development. However, the PTF would conclude its assessment on the impact of measures put in place and further recommendations would be submitted to President Muhammdu Buhari for a decision within the next 70 hours.
He noted that this is further underscored by the statistics from other parts of the world, as the global numbers showed that the world has recorded 5,778,551 cases and 356,722 deaths from 251 countries.
Also speaking, Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire said Nigeria presently has over 112 treatment and isolation centres in 35 states and FCT with over 5,000 beds, but not all states have made it up to at least 300 beds prescribed for isolation and treatment.
Ehanire said there was the need to continue increasing bed capacity to match the probable number of patients, so that the country do not experience horrific scenes of bed space shortages being experienced in some European hospitals.
He pointed out that global efforts to find a cure for COVID- 19, in which Nigeria was participating in the World Health Organisation ( WHO’S) solidarity trial, would be reviewed by experts, as the WHO suspended the trial due to alarm raised by a medical journal on the safety of some drugs being tried, like hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine and their combinations.
Speaking, Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control ( NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu noted that samples being transported to the lab were badly packaged and licking which had made the whole efforts useless, adding that COVIC has invested N47million on sample transportation.