The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Babatunde Irukera, has stepped forward to warn health caregivers in the country against infringing on the rights of patients in public hospitals.
While unveiling the Patients’ Bill of Rights (PBoR), recently, at University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Irukera expressed worry over avoidable acrimonious relationship between patients’ relatives and healthcare providers in the country.
Warning of the consequences of the development on healthcare in the country, the EVC said the commission would ensure an end to the ugly trend.
Though the bill was in favour of the patients, he said any patient or their relative that equally infringe on the rights of the medical personnel would be prosecuted under the nation’s laws.
He narrated how alleged dysfunctional system in the nation’s healthcare system had, in the past, led to uncountable medical errors, noting that the FCCPC would henceforth ensure prompt enforcement of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in Nigeria.
His words: “As a member of the Health Reform Committee of the Federal Government, I have a bitter-sweet experience to narrate. Besides, the unresolved acrimony among healthcare professionals should also be looked into. Acrimony is not just palpable but tangible.
“Patients are the victims of what we do or fail to do. We must look into how patients are treated. Our interactions with patients should reflect our seriousness as healthcare givers. The gamut of our discussion, therefore, is on how to treat patients in dignified ways.”
Irukera thanked the management of UITH for proactive approach to the PBoR issue, despite existing bottlenecks in public health sector.Reacting to the development, the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (C-MAC) of UITH, Dr. Louis Odeigha, who represented the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Abdullah Yussuf, said the hospital, through its SERVICOM and Legal Units, had, for the umpteenth time, been implementing the PBoR at the health care institution.
He said the scheme had been inculcated in the modules of 400 Level Medical Students of College of Medicine, University of Ilorin. Odeigha added that effective communication system had been created to serve as a veritable way of conflicts resolution in the hospital.
