Thisday – Resign, Lagos Tells Striking Doctors
Lagosians may be in for an unhealthy start to the new year as the face-off between the doctors and the state government has taken a new turn, with the Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, asking doctors planning to embark on strike today to resign their appointments.
Daily Trust – As general hospitals become ‘killing grounds’.
Mr Mike Okon was an expectant father as he sat on the bench outside the labour room of the maternity ward of the Wuse General Hospital, anxiously awaiting the news of his wife’s delivery. She had just been taken into the labour room and laid on the delivery bed by the nurses who attended to her. But barely ten minutes later, noisy arguments from the labour room jarred on his nerves and he went in to take a look when he saw his wife cursing and dragging along her heavy frame towards the exit door. On enquiry, he was simply told by the nurses that since his wife’s baby “is not ready to come out, she should please stand up and give other women the bed.
The Guardian – Nigerian applies for leave to stay in the UK on health grounds because going home “amounts to passing a death sentence”
A Nigerian travelled to the United Kingdom, accompanied by his wife, a few years ago on a business trip. While on this trip, Mr Chukwu , who suffered from hypertension and diabetes, developed a cerebrovascular accident that led to a left-sided hemiplagia with some degree of dysarthria. This means that he developed a stroke that led to the paralysis of the left side of his body with some difficulty in making speech. Following discharge from the hospital, Mr Chukwu continued to receive medical care at a nursing home in London. When this misfortune sets in, he exhausted the money on him, including those remitted to him from Nigeria by family and friends. His wife resulted to doing early morning odd jobs, cleaning and the likes, to raise money so as to make ends meet. One day, at about six in the morning and while at work, Mrs Chukwu was arrested by the police and immigration officials for working illegally in the UK. It was discovered that Mr and Mrs Chukwu came to the UK on a six month visa that had expired. This visa did not permit either Mr or Mrs Chukwu to work in the UK. Mrs Chukwu was subsequently prosecuted and spent 5 months in jail. Not only this, she and her husband also faced deportation back to Nigeria.
BBC – Breathing life into Niger Delta clinics
An ill person paddles a canoe for two days across the world’s richest oil fields for access to the most basic healthcare or children walking five to 10 miles in search of medical care only to find a crumbling building and not a doctor in sight.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has…Margaret Mead