Tertiary healthcare in the South-East is on life support as decaying primary and secondary care, as well as systemic neglect, are paralysing the teaching hospital. Ranging from a paucity of medical facilities, lax service delivery, and poorly trained and remunerated medical personnel to poor funding, the challenges are simply dire and undermine the realisation of the goals set by the Federal Government in setting them up, LAWRENCE NJOKU, CHARLES OGUGBUAJA, GORDI UDEAJA, NNAMDI AKPA and CHUKS COLLINS report.
When Ogonna Egwu rushed her sick mother to the Accident and Emergency Ward of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) in February this year, she was convinced that her mother would be availed the needed medical attention to keep her alive.
On examination, Egwu was advised by the doctors to purchase a waterbed to aid her mother’s treatment. With none available at the dispensary, she had a couple of options – make a swift 25-kilometre trip to Enugu town (about a 45-minute journey depending on traffic) to purchase one, seek assistance from the appropriate hospital staff, or employ their contacts to help.
Since there was nobody to keep an eye on her sick mum while she went shopping, she elected to engage a hospital staff member to help procure the bed, which only arrived the following day, a development that negatively impacted the health of her mother. Sadly, she died a day after.
