Situation at LUTH defines limited bed spaces in public hospitals

Stories of accident victims dying at the emergency ward due to lack of bed space remains a worrisome phenomenon in Nigeria health care services.

Although, government owned hospitals are known for its ability to deliver affordable and qualitative healthcare services, the “No-Space syndrome” can be said to be a major defect in the management of these hospitals.

Unfortunately, as this trend worsens due to poor emergency services, accident victims, who could have been saved and become worthwhile to the growth of this country, are lost to avoidable deaths on a daily basis.

Attitude of medical practitioners in the face of emergency could also be said to be very appalling. When The Guardian visited the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) on Monday, an accident victim, Akeem Jimoh, who was in an unconscious state, was brought in from Badagry expressway, only to be left unattended to at the entrance of accident and emergency ward.

Luck later shined on him as he was attended to after a bed space was vacant fifteen minutes that he arrived.

Speaking on the reason for such scenarios, a staff of LUTH who pleaded anonymity said that there is limited bed space in the Accident and Emergency ward, which has been occupied already. This implies that there is no space for any other person except there is a dead patient.

“There are lots of people inside who just came in; the whole place is filled up with patients that need quick attention,” he emphasized.

One would observe that that was the usual plight of accident victims in most general hospitals across the state. The reasons are not far-fetched. A large number of citizens explore the government owned hospital in other to get health care services in a qualitative and literally affordable rate but there seems to be little concern on the path of the government. The rise in the projected population of Lagos can also be pointed out as another worrisome factor militating against effective distribution of this service.