The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has asked Nigerians to report to the Ministry of Health any doctor who fails to treat them for any other ailment due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nigerians have complained bitterly about how they have been treated by doctors and hospitals since the COVD-19 pandemic started.
He said “It is unethical to reject patients who come to the hospital for treatment. I have said here repeatedly that every person who comes to the hospital must be seen and attended to and at least, be given advice on what to do. If you can’t do it, advise him on where to go or call transport for him; but to just say go, we don’t handle that is not ethical, and it is not acceptable. So, if that happens anywhere, you have the authority to write to the board of that hospital and lay complain. Or you can also write to the ministry of health, or you can write to the state ministry of health if it is a state-owned hospital. If it is a private hospital, you can write to the medical director or if they have a management board, you can write there to express yourself. This is very important. So, we do receive cases or complaints like that and we have always followed them up and in cases where it is proven that there is an infringement on the duties of the Doctor it is referred to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and it is well known that they have gone to as far as withdrawing licenses of doctors for cases of very serious medical misbehaviour”