Sequel to the attack on the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) Ado Ekiti, leading to alleged brutalisation of some health workers, the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), has solicited special insurance cover to serve as indemnity against emergency attacks .
NUAHP expressed anger over attack on a Pharmacist, Umanah Ubong, when the family of a deceased patient invaded the health facility and forcefully whisked away a corpse out of the hospital, describing the action as barbaric and unacceptable.
The body, which saluted the Chairman , Ekiti House of Assembly Committee on Health, Hon. Abimbola Solanke, for her readiness to sponsor a bill that will protect health professionals, said special insurance was urgently required to safeguard the lives of members.
Some angry family members, on Monday, besieged EKSUTH and vented their anger over the death of a member, culminating in alleged manhandling of some health professionals, while trying to ferry the dead body out of the facility.
The NUAHP’s National Treasurer and Chairman, EKSUTH Chapter of the body, Com. Omotola Farotimi, in a statement, in Ado Ekiti, on Thursday, said such shoddy and demeaning act shouldn’t be allowed to reoccur in the hospital.
Farotimi lamented that such inhuman act occuring in the hospital signaled that lives of health professionals are no longer safe on duty.
Explaining how the incident happened, NUAHP’s leader said: “Pharm Ubong was on call duty when the son of the deceased used his leg to break the door of the Pharmacy Department in the Accident and Emergency Department and harassed the Pharmacist with the intention to attack him.
“Unfortunately for the man, he sustained injury on his hand with a lot of blood loss. The Pharmacist was the one that used his initiative to calm the injured man and helped him to stop the blood before the Pharmacist escaped.
“This was highly condemnable and unacceptable by our union for this level of damage on the facilities and harassment of our members.
“We seek the intervention of Governor Biodun Oyebanji, to establish a health insurance scheme for the health professionals in Ekiti State, which will serve as a protection for the health professionals in the hospitals, so as to be able to carry out their duties without fear or threat”.
Farotimi appreciated the Ekiti State government and the commissioner of Police, Mr. Dare Ogundare for restoring normalcy and proactive efforts take to arrest the perpetrators.
On how to foster and promote health workers-patients relationship in Ekiti, Farotimi pleaded with patients’ relatives to halt incessant harassment of workers in all health facilities, urging them to adopt civilised means to report any noticeable professional misconduct to the management.