Alloy Khenom
It has been alleged that very poor state of affairs exist in all departments at the Bori General Hospital, headquarters of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The situation has led to serious verbal complaint in some quarters across the LGA and, an eventual petition to necessary health authorities in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state Capital.
Concerned individuals and authorities in Khana LGA have expressed grievances on the situation to handlers of health matters in the state via petitions captioned, “Worrisome State of Bori General Hospital.” requesting urgent intervention to halt more preventable deaths and attract good health delivery to the public.
One of much petitions came from Nortem-Bori Community Development Committee (N-BCDC) the host community of the hospital.
In the document made available to this paper, the authors said, their allegations represent the true situation at the hospital and the concern of the public for credible service.
A respected retired superintendent of police and chairman of Nortem-Bori CDC, Chief, Clement Asaah, Chief of Staff/ Secretary Nortem Palace, Chief Bassey Otudor JP and, Hon. Lebatam Letatam Scott Gbaga, Chairman, Du Nortem-Bori main market traders association initialled the petition to the health authorities.
Their allegations include, lack of sphygonomanotre (blood pressure apparatus), ambu-bag to resuscitate a patient in cases of respiratory problems, as well as need for Basic Life Support measures where there might be no oxygen.
They explained that, Bori General Hospital as a zonal health institution is expected to be a referral hospital for those at Bodo City and Terabor (Gokana LGA), including health centres or clinics in and around Bori, but the reverse is the case due to absence of basic requirements and administrative incompetence.
Some heads of departments and other qualified staff are left out of operations thereby, leading to inefficiency, and loss of resources, the petitioners said.
“As we speak now, no doctor in the hospital can operate a patient. The only doctor (Dr. Kelo) who operates has been transferred. The present medical director is a public health consultant who should be in a health centre and not in-charge of a General Hospital. One Dr. Ibani brought to replace Dr. Kelo does not do operations, consequently doctors are invited from outside the hospital with cost borne by patients. For example, an operation that should cost N150,000 would attract extra N50,000, making it N200,000” they said.
Continuing, the document revealed that, “there is no screen for privacy in the emergency/casualty department, even as the hospital head does not hold meeting with staff to know what is cooking”
Our visit to the hospital revealed that all was truly not well in the place but the dejectedly-looking workers were not willing to discuss the situation.
They merely preferred to say, “thank you for coming to show concern to our problems but we cannot speak to journalists”. Our visit on Friday, February 16, 2024 was the second, with notes left behind for anticipated comment from the medical director who would not respond until we went to press.***
