If Ahmed Abdulfatah, governor, Kwara State, pays as much attention to health services in Ilorin like he does to his ever spiffy looking hairdo, the average indigent kwaran with no other means of getting health care but government hospitals wouldn’t be Nigeria’s most endangered person. Just do a simple google images search on Ahmed to see what I mean. Crisp haircuts, not a single strand of hair straying out of place, always with that trade mark white tint on his temple. Consider, too, his custom made suits, primly fitted, hugging that body of his.
You could be forgiven if you mistake Abdulfatah for a showbiz impresario. Having all these in mind, quickly make a visit to General Hospital, Ilorin, preferably, one of the wards. There you will get a firsthand experience of what it means for a governor never to be in tune with what the average Kwara man suffers in government owned hospitals.
Rather than the sharp and acrid smell of disinfectant, what you are accosted with, instead, is such odour that can’t be named. The smell is what you get when the hospital management fails to provide and hospital attendants have to extort money from ward inmates and their relatives to buy detergents with which to mop the floor.
It’s either that or the floor is mopped with ordinary water. In this hospital, disinfectants like Izal or common detol are luxuries and largely unaffordable by the hospital management! That odour is what you get when inmate are left to be cleaned up by their relatives, and their human wastes disposed by same people.
I am told this particular hospital is about the best you can get in Kwara, as far as government provided health services are concerned. But the state government maintains that it is world class. Just ask any of the state government spokesmen.
You see, the general hospital, Ilorin, is one of the five facilities spread across the state at Kiama, Omu-Aran, Lafiagi and Shaare which Ahmed spent N3.9 billion renovating. Please be guided, the keyword here is ‘renovating’, not ‘constructed.’ As a matter of fact, the largest of them, Ilorin’s, used to be University of Ilorin’s teaching hospital. Its building was intact when it was handed over to Kwara; ditto for the other four. The point here is: Ahmed is quick at spending big money on projects but far less concerned about what quality of service people get from what the money is spent on.
To him, it’s all about showiness like his good looks. When you consider the raw deal that patients get from these hospitals, you suddenly have this impression of Ahmed’s ‘renovated’ hospital as a fitting match to that proverbial white sepulcher filled with dead men’s bones.
What I have managed to describe so far does not entirely capture it all. When I was told about it, I simply dismissed the tales of shambolic health delivery as pure fiction. So I figured that if I have to regale you with details of what I have seen, first hand, you may dismiss them as tall tales, too.
If I were to tell you that hospitals in Kwara charge antenatal patients five liters of patrol before being admitted would you believe me? Yes, they do so at the Offa General hospital. The fuel is meant to power the facility’s generator.
How about the ones where patients are asked to provide three gallons of water before being taken on admission? At Cottage Hospital in Ilorin, there is no steady water supply despite many boasts by the governor of fixing water reticulation in the state.
Or should I speak of the strange ‘disinfectant’ fee charged from patients by hospital management? Go to Center Igboro, Ilorin, if you doubt my story.
The list is endless. You will need to be in anyone of these hospitals to fully appreciate why I now believe that indigent population in Kwara are having it rough.-NICHOLAS UWERUNONYE
Your mates are making Naija proud daily.You are there wailing and hating. #kontinu
