At AKTH, even newborn struggles for bed space

Handed over by the Kano State Government to the Federal Government in 1996 during the era of General Sani Abacha, AKTH which was initially a-500 bed space hospital is now contending with thousands of patients who are trooping there from its host state (Kano), Jigawa, Katsina and some parts of Bauchi state.The crowd thronging there, […]

Handed over by the Kano State Government to the Federal Government in 1996 during the era of General Sani Abacha, AKTH which was initially a-500 bed space hospital is now contending with thousands of patients who are trooping there from its host state (Kano), Jigawa, Katsina and some parts of Bauchi state.
The crowd thronging there, according to the hospital management was as result of the ineffective primary and secondary hospitals in Kano, Jigawa, Katsina states.
One of the departments that are badly facing the challenge of the crowd is the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) where babies that are premature, post-mature, anaemia among others are treated.
To control the upsurge, the hospital has classified the unit into two, namely in-born (for babies born at AKTK) and out-born (for babies who are referred to the hospital). Our correspondent observed that babies who are in in-born unit are given preferential treatment.
Explaining the modus operandi of the department, one of the doctors at the unit, Dr. Zubaida Faruk said babies spend between one and 28 days depending on their circumstances.
“Because AKTH is one of the few hospitals in the North West with this facility, we attend to over 250 babies daily. In a shift we have 30 doctors attending to the special babies,” she said.
When our correspondent went to the unit last Thursday, he saw many babies in incubators being attended to by medical personnel. Babies of different sizes and medical condition were in high numbers there.
At the unit, mothers were seen queuing to breastfeed their babies inside a room, dedicated for that purpose.
The babies unit is not the only affected section of AKTH, as our correspondent observed that the family medical department is being overcrowded too.  At the reception, hundreds of patients were seen on long queue waiting to see doctors.
Speaking to our correspondent one of the patients Aliyu Shehu Jabo said he came from Hadeja in Jigawa state to seek medication on an undisclosed ailment.
“I came here around 7.am so that I can see a doctor on time but this is 12 noon and I’m still on queue yet to be attended to. I have been to hospitals in Jigawa but I was referred here when they could not treat my ailment,” he said.
Like him, Barratu Lawal of Naibawa area of Kano said for a patient to see doctors by 12noon, he or she must be on queue before 6.am.
“I spent hours before seeing a doctor but I don’t mind because I see result at end of the day. The hospital management are devising means to address it but the crowd kept swelling by the day,” she said while on queue on Thursday.
Despite the fact that the unit has 14 consulting rooms and runs two shifts, patients still spend an average of five hours before seeing a doctor.
Speaking to our correspondent, Doctor Godpower Micheal of the department said before the insurgency reared its ugly face in the country patients from neighbouring countries attends the hospital.
“We have over 30 doctors attached to this unit, three consultants and 13 registrars that are good to become consultants. We cannot say we have all what we need but we are coping with the crowd. We see over 500 patients here per day as our second shifts ends by 9.pm,” he said.
In order to avoid the crowd, our correspondent gathered that some patients run to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital.
As a result of this, patients at the emergency unit are now compelled to pass through the triage personnel who prioritise the degree of urgency of a case.
Speaking to Daily Trust, the doctor in charge of the unit, Dr. Akanbi A. Waheed said the misconceptions of emergency cases by patients are giving them loads of headache.
“If people have headache they will tell you that their case is emergency because they want to cut corners. Here in this department our challenges are insufficient bed space, manpower and misconception of the department,” he said.
A senior nursing sister at the Speciality clinic of the hospital, Ladi Adamu said patients stand for hours before seeing doctors.
“Some of our patients stand for hours because of inadequate seats. Many times all our seats in the reception would be occupied and patients have no alternative than to stand till its their turn to see the doctor,” she said.
Reacting to the trend, the Chief Medical Director of the Hospital, Professor Aminu Zakari Mohammed said their major problem was lack of adequate manpower to cater for their over 20 million patients in the North West.
“Our capacity is being overstretched and this is why we are having the challenge of bed space and others. We have adequate specialists in various medical fields.
“We have experts in kidney transplant unlike before that we use to carry out transplant with the support of foreign experts now we are doing it with our own specialists. We have been having 70 percent success. A married woman that had her kidney transplant here in 2002 is living well, in fact she has successfully delivered three babies after the transplant,” he said.
According to him, they will overcome the challenge of manpower as soon as the Federal Government lift the embargo on employment at the teaching hospitals nationwide.
“The hospital is being crowded because of weak primary, secondary and tertiary hospitals in states around us,” he said.