Visiting the hospital premises, it was relatively sparse with activities, compared to what used to be before the Ebola crisis. From several indications, First Consultant Hospital is still trying to recover from challenges brought by its visitor, Patrick Sawyer. The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Benjamin Ohiaeri, gives an insight into what the experience has been like so far:
How has it been like getting back to rendering health services since the hospital was decontaminated and confirmed safe by WHO, mostly in terms of patronage and among staff?
The loss of Dr Adadevoh, Dr Abaniwo, Evelyn Uko and Ejelonu, four key members of our team, the first two of who were the most senior of our medics and members of the Hospital Executive Committee, has been hard. They were colleagues, they were family. We are talking of a lifetime of working as a close team – as confidantes, as family. So, yes it’s been very tough.
As well as our fallen heroes, we have many of the survivors here. Medics, who placed their lives on the line to avoid Ebola spreading to the general public; they suffered the trauma of threats to their lives and the horror of rejection, in many cases, simply because they once had Ebola.
The families of our people have suffered horrendous victimisation too. Children of the dead hounded out of rented homes just when they needed compassion; the husband of a sufferer thrown out of his job simply because the employer learned of his wife’s condition.
The pain, the suffering, the horror goes on and on. Still, our people are back at work, doing what they do best – caring for the ill.
For the hospital, we are inching back to life. As you know, the place was shut down for nearly three months while it was decontaminated by the WHO. So, our business was essentially shut in all that time, though our expenses, salaries, among others, continued to run.
Since re-opening, we have witnessed firsthand what it means to be stigmatised. At a time when you would think we would be appreciated for our professionalism in containing Ebola, we are enduring a significant depletion in patient-turn up. We are down on numbers by a factor of about 90 per cent.
But for the generosity of friends and family, Aledo Peterside, Tunde Ayeni, Diamond Bank, etc., this business would have collapsed. Even now, we are struggling to stay afloat. If has been very tough indeed.
Is there anything the hospital would have done differently as regards the Ebola issue?
As medical practitioners, we are sworn to the Hypocratic Oath. We are duty bound to give care to the ill; we are duty bound to act in the best interests of the wider community – avoiding the spread of contagious diseases where we can.
These are the roles that we served in responding to the Ebola crises. These are the roles we served in protecting the wider public.
Would we act differently today or in the future? I can tell you, No. Notwithstanding the tough experience of the last few months, the impact on our people and our business of this disease, I believe that we would step forward and be counted in our efforts to live up to our responsibilities as medical professionals.
As professionals, we must not turn our backs on caring for the sick and the wider public. Narrow business concerns should not be determinant of our sense of responsibility. We must step up to protect patient and public alike, while doing more to ensure the health and safety of staff and ourselves.
We should, however, also be supported and compensated by the authorities. Governments need to support this place financially and compensate the families of those who died and the survivors.
In supporting First Consultants, fallen medics and survivors, all of whom have suffered for the greater good of our people, the message will be sent everywhere that institutions like ours, caught up in a scenario with such potentially devastating impact, will not suffer alone. To fail to give support to First Consultants and the berieved and suffering families is not good. It opens up wider society to risks that are better imagined than experienced.
For our part, we did what we believed to be tight and proper. We can only hope that our sacrifices will, in due course, be appreciated and the consequences, supported.
If another situation calls for it, would the hospital admit another ‘Patrick Sawyer’
Like I said, we are professionals, sworn to patient care. We are not in the business of denying care to the sick. We are in the business of attending to those who require care.
Yet, we are a private care facility. We depend on the confidence and business of private individuals and private businesses to survive. Where that confidence shrinks, we suffer. Where we suffer for the cause of acting in the public good, we deserve support by the authorities. We think this is the right thing to do. You can be assured that our professional colleagues and the general public are watching.
What measures are being put in place to further convince the members of the public that the hospital is 100 per cent safe?
As you know, the hospital and Nigeria have been declared Ebola free by the World Health Organization. As a matter of fact, the WHO did the contaminating and cleansing of the entire hospital. Their thorough and highly professional effort is clear for all to see. It is why we are all here today, safe and sound.
First Consultants Hospital is open for business. Our entire surviving team is here and patient numbers are growing slowly. There is no Ebola here. If there were, the people you find here would all be ill. This place has been thoroughly disinfected and rendered completely fit for use. We are back at work in perhaps one of the most sanitized environments in this country. We encourage the media to take our message to Nigerians. We need you to get our plight out our governments.
Source: Nigerian Tribune