Medical social workers canvass better deal for indigent patients

The Association of Medical Social Workers of Nigeria (AMSWON), Lagos State chapter has highlighted the plight of patients seeking medical care, especially those unable to offset hospital bills and abandoned by relatives in hospitals.

To address the issue, yesterday, during a courtesy visit to Rutam House corporate headquarters of The Guardian in Lagos, AMSWON Chairman, Osaro Galvin Aikpitanyi, restated the determination of the body to train health workers on managing health emergencies across the state to reduce number of Nigerians dying from traumas and other illnesses on a daily basis.

He regretted the astronomical cost of medicare, resulting in abandonment of indigent patients in hospitals nationwide.

Ahead of its 2022 Socio-Scientific Conference/Training holding between August 18 and 19 at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, AMSWON commended the National Assembly for passing the Nigerian Council for Social Work (Establishment) Bill, urging President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to it as a legal framework for the profession.

AMSWON said the association was focusing more attention on ensuring that indigent persons have access to medical treatment.

The chairman, who works with the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, said the association needs philanthropists to sponsor treatments of underprivileged Nigerians

Chairman, Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the forthcoming conference, Dr. Titilayo Tade, said the association was interested in mental health patients as well as owing to discrimination against them.

She urged Nigerians to stop the stigmatisation and show the sufferers love.

Tade, who is of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba, noted: “We have reconciled mental health patients with their families in different states.”

An LOC member, Temitayo Ajetunmoibi, implored other state governments to emulate Lagos in employing medical social workers for betterment of the patients.