The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria, has called on the Federal Government to urgently reform the public healthcare system and address the challenges confronting patients at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, UPTH.
The organisation expressed concern over reports of patients waiting for several hours, and sometimes days, before receiving medical attention at the tertiary health facility in Rivers State.
In a press statement issued in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, October 14, the Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Fyneface Dumnamene described the situation as disturbing and called for immediate intervention.
Dumnamene said the organisation, through its advocacy activities in vulnerable communities across the Niger Delta, had encountered people who depend entirely on public health facilities for their medical needs and survival. He said it was heartbreaking to hear and see reports of patients in critical conditions lying on benches and in hospital corridors while waiting endlessly for medical attention.
“From our advocacy work in communities, we interface with many people who depend solely on public health facilities, from primary health centres to secondary and tertiary institutions like UPTH, for their health needs and survival. It is heartbreaking to hear time without number and to see reports of patients in critical conditions reportedly lying on benches, in corridors, or waiting endlessly for a doctor’s attention. There are reports that some have lost their lives not because their ailments were incurable, but because attention came too late,” He said.
The Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria acknowledged that health workers at UPTH and other public hospitals often operate under difficult conditions and are overstretched but insisted that the Federal Government must take responsibility for addressing systemic failures in the healthcare sector. He identified inadequate medical personnel, obsolete equipment, overcrowded wards, poor funding and low morale among health workers as some of the challenges undermining effective healthcare delivery.
Fyneface Dumnamene also linked the poor welfare packages of health professionals to the growing japa syndrome, which has contributed to the migration of skilled Nigerian workers abroad.
“The issues are well-known – grossly inadequate manpower, with one doctor attending to tens or even hundreds of patients; obsolete equipment; overcrowded wards; poor funding; and low morale among health personnel due to poor welfare packages which is fuelling the ‘japa’ syndrome. You cannot expect efficient service delivery when the system itself is sick,” he added.
The organisation maintained that access to timely and quality healthcare was a fundamental human right connected to the right to life and human dignity, as provided under Chapter Four of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and relevant international instruments ratified by Nigeria.
YEAC-Nigeria consequently called on the Federal Government and the Federal Ministry of Health to increase funding for UPTH, recruit more doctors, nurses and other critical health professionals, and upgrade hospital facilities to accommodate the growing number of patients from Rivers State and other parts of the Niger Delta. It also urged the management of UPTH to strengthen patient-friendly administrative procedures, including effective triage, appointment scheduling and transparent feedback and complaint mechanisms that protect patients’ dignity.
The organisation further stressed the need for the hospital’s emergency department to be adequately equipped to respond promptly to emergencies and save lives. YEAC-Nigeria called on the Rivers State Government to strengthen primary and secondary healthcare facilities across the state to reduce avoidable pressure on tertiary institutions, including UPTH, which serves as a major referral centre.
In his concluding remarks, Dumnamene said the treatment of vulnerable citizens was a measure of a society’s commitment to good governance and development.
“A society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable. When a sick citizen has to wait for hours in pain to see a doctor in a Federal Teaching Hospital in an oil-rich state like Rivers, it is an indictment on our governance and development priorities. We cannot be exporting crude oil and importing medical tourism which many people cannot afford, at the same time. The government must fix UPTH as a matter of urgent priority,” Fyneface concluded.
