Somtochukwu

Some nursing mothers at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, yesterday decried alleged inhuman treatment melted on them by the hospital management, claiming they were evicted from the hospital lodge without prior notice.

Meanwhile, the hospital management has denied the allegation, saying, they were only protecting them from being exposed to COVID-19 as the area in question was being rearranged for COVID-19 patients’ management,

In a video clip made available to Vanguard, the mothers alleged that the management of the hospital evicted them from a lodge which they pay on a daily basis to stay and watch over their babies.

One of the mothers, who spoke to Vanguard under anonymity for fear of victimization, said that they were evicted from where they use to sleep without any notice.

“Mothers of newborn babies with medical issues that need to be rectified are required to stay very close to their babies. Due to the fact that some of these mothers are coming from a far place, they need to sleep somewhere pending the time their babies will be okay.

“This morning at LUTH without any notice, these mothers were thrown out of where they use to sleep without any notice.

As of yesterday, they were still collecting money from us. No notice was given to mothers that they should stop payment for where they are sleeping, we just wake up today and we were evicted.

Regrettably, in LUTH, no adequate arrangement for mothers with newborn babies, don’t forget that these women just gave birth, some of them through Caesarean section, CS, they have nowhere to stay, then the ridiculous accommodation that has been provided is suddenly taken without notice, where will they go if it rains over the night? Will they sleep under the rain?” she added.

Reacting to the allegation, the Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Prof Chris Bode dismissed the claims saying the mothers were given adequate notice that the area was being arranged for COVID-19 patients management.

“There is a hospice in LUTH where people who do not have a place to stay can stay. We are in the process of preparing a place for our COVID-19 patients who will move into the place and we cannot allow people who do not have COVID- 19 to be exposed to that. This was explained to them you can call the CMAC to ask him.  

“This place call a hospice is within LUTH with beds and a toilet facility is there and that place is made for people who cannot go home. She cannot say we are not taking care of their babies. We don’t want them to catch COVID-19. 

On his part, the Chairman Medical Advisory Committee, CMAC, Professor Wasiu Adeyemo described the allegation as baseless, adding that, the hospital was not evicting anybody.

“There is rearrangement that is ongoing around the area. We are moving the COVID-19 ward to another location so as to enable the hospital to accommodate more patients.

“If you look at some of the allegations, for instance, the complaint that the condition of that place was not good, are they not the ones littering the place?

The issue is that we want to relocate the ward for covid-19 management, because the ward has 120 beds whereas the number of COVID-19 patients has reduced, instead of sending patients away due to lack of enough space we decided to make an adjustment to accommodate new patients.

“Six mothers have written to us as regards the relocation and we assured them that we are going to resolve it so I don’t know why they are still making a fake video. The part they recorded was not that of nursing mothers but patients’ relatives.

You know we have a challenge in Nigeria whereby a patient is admitted, about four relatives will come that they want to stay with the patient. Are we going to provide accommodation for all of them? We have places they can actually lodge but they refused to lodge because of the stipend they will demand from them, but we still accommodate them in that place.

“We are not running a hotel, we cannot create a Ward for the patient and still create another ward for relations. The people sleeping on the floor are relatives that are not needed in the hospital.

It is true that nursing mothers need to be around because of their babies, we have a lodge where they can stay but they don’t want to pay for lodging and yet we still show understanding by accommodating them in that place which was donated to the hospital by an individual.”

Adeyemo, however, told Vanguard that the problem has been resolved as of press time.

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