By Wale Akinselure
The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Office of Transformation, Creativity and Innovation, Oluwatoyin Anjous-Ademuyiwa, has warned that any resident who attacks medical personnel in hospitals across the state risks imprisonment, stressing that the government will not tolerate assaults on healthcare workers.
Anjous-Ademuyiwa gave the warning on Wednesday during the maiden stakeholders’ meeting of the Federal Medical Centre, Epe, Lagos, themed, “Making FMC Epe Work for All: A Shared Responsibility for Building Trust, Improving Service and Enhancing Patient Care.”
The meeting was convened by the management of the hospital, led by its Medical Director, Dr Adeleke Kaka, to mark one year since the facility’s upgrade from a state general hospital to a Federal Medical Centre and to receive feedback from residents and other stakeholders on its operations.
During the meeting, some stakeholders complained about delays in attending to emergency cases, inadequate manpower and what they described as discourteous attitudes by some health workers.
They also recalled incidents in which medical personnel were allegedly assaulted by relatives of patients over perceived poor service delivery.
Responding, Anjous-Ademuyiwa condemned attacks on healthcare workers, describing such actions as criminal offences that would not be tolerated.
She said, “If you attack our medical staff, you go to jail. Safety is paramount in our hospitals or any government facility. Health workers are supposed to be protected at all costs.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re the son of the Pope. Doctors also have their families. The moment you hurt somebody, you’re going to jail. There’s no compromise on that.
“There’s a law that says if you hurt people or kill people, you must face the consequences, and it is applicable here.”
The permanent secretary said violence against health workers was particularly disturbing at a time many doctors were leaving the country for greener pastures abroad.
She urged patients and their relatives to build trust with healthcare providers through effective communication, noting that treatment could only be successful when patients openly discussed their health conditions with doctors.
Addressing the concerns raised by stakeholders, Kaka acknowledged that attracting and retaining doctors in Epe remained one of the hospital’s biggest challenges, blaming the situation on poor electricity supply and the broader migration of healthcare professionals.
He appealed to residents to be patient with hospital personnel and avoid actions capable of discouraging doctors and other health workers from accepting postings to the area.
Kaka said, “We’ve been trying our best, but there’s no quick fix when it comes to getting doctors to work in particular places.”
He noted that the shortage of medical personnel was not peculiar to FMC Epe, saying hospitals across the country were facing similar challenges.
“When you talk about migration, even what people call japa, it is a global thing. When I attend meetings of committees of CMDs and MDs, it’s the same story everywhere,” he said.
The medical director said the hospital had continued to bridge manpower gaps by engaging National Youth Service Corps doctors and other health workers while working on more sustainable solutions.
He added that the management had also been encouraging doctors to remain in Epe by providing accommodation and creating a more conducive working environment.
“One of the game-changers we’re looking forward to is commencing our medical entrepreneurship training and residency training programmes,” Kaka said.
According to him, residency training would not only improve specialist healthcare services but also encourage doctors to remain in the hospital for several years while undergoing professional training.
He said, “Doctors who come in for residency know they have about five or six years to complete the programme. That gives them stability, and they know that after the programme, they will become consultants.”
Kaka added that the hospital also planned to strengthen the capacity of junior and middle-level health workers through continuous training to improve service delivery.
He assured stakeholders that despite the manpower constraints, the management remained committed to improving healthcare services and ensuring that residents of Epe and neighbouring communities had access to quality medical care.
Speaking on concerns over the non-functioning morgue, Kaka said the management had commenced rehabilitation of the facility after discovering that it was in a deplorable condition when the Federal Government took over the hospital.
He explained that abandoned corpses that had remained in the morgue for several years were evacuated after due process and given a mass burial, while the facility was cleaned to restore dignity to the dead.
The medical director said the hospital had also repaired the morgue’s refrigeration units but noted that stable electricity remained critical to their effective operation.
He expressed optimism that ongoing rehabilitation works would be completed within the next few weeks, allowing the morgue to resume full operations.
Earlier, security personnel at the meeting lamented the inability of the hospital to admit corpses, saying they had been compelled to transport bodies to morgues in neighbouring Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.
Other stakeholders also called for improvements in emergency response, staffing, electricity supply, security and patient relations to enable the hospital to better serve residents of Epe and adjoining communities.
The event was attended by traditional rulers, youth leaders, community development associations, market associations, traditional birth attendants, political office holders and other stakeholders, who pledged continued support for the hospital’s efforts to improve healthcare delivery in the area.
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