Bela: Kano’s skin hospital in deplorable state

Access to primary healthcare is a problem not unique to Kano State, but the dearth of health workers, especially medical doctors, in the state and the deplorable situations of many of the hospital, especially those outside the metropolitan areas, have been of great concern. The general hospital in Ungogo Local Government Area, which was formerly […]

Access to primary healthcare is a problem not unique to Kano State, but the dearth of health workers, especially medical doctors, in the state and the deplorable situations of many of the hospital, especially those outside the metropolitan areas, have been of great concern. The general hospital in Ungogo Local Government Area, which was formerly a skin specialist hospital and most popularly known as Bela Hospital, faces one of the most inhospitable situations. Daily Trust on Sunday reports.

 

Rahima Shehu Dokaji, Kano

Bela General Hospital admits hundreds of patients on daily basis and has only one medical doctor who attends to them every single day unfailingly. Now, imagine what will happen when the doctor himself becomes sick.

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This is the sad reality of the 106-year-old Yadakunya General Hospital (popularly known as Bela Leprosy Hospital), located at Ungogo Local Government Area of Kano State. The hospital which used to treat leprosy and skin-related ailments was upgraded a few years ago to serve as the only general hospital in the local government area.

To say the quality of the facilities of the hospital is poor is an understatement, as the consequences of decayed infrastructure, poor medical attention from unmotivated health workers, limited services and acute shortage of bed space, among others are the major issues of concern, Daily Trust Saturday observed.

A female caregiver, who asked not to be named, confirmed to our reporter that even though the hospital workers claim that there’s adequate potable water supply in the hospital, that has not been the case.

“I have been in this hospital for some days now, as I am taking care of my boy who was admitted a few days ago. I can confidently tell you that I have never fetched nor seen anyone fetching water from within this hospital.

“I use my own money to either buy pure water or fetch from a borehole or tap close by,” she said when Daily Trust on Sunday visited the hospital last week.

Upon inspection, Daily Trust on Sunday discovered that not only are the hospital’s toilets not pleasant to look at, but they need major renovation as some have fallen in, some decayed, and others not clean at all.

Alhaji Murtala Bashir is the village head of Yadakunya, the area where the hospital is situated, and he said that because the hospital has a history, it tends to shock people when they see its current state.

 

“You see, this hospital has become a home to almost all the problems hospitals in Nigeria are battling with and more. It lacks electricity, adequate water, health workers and more.

“We have a generator that operates on gas, and the government used to provide it on daily basis before, but over the years it has become inconsistent.

“Now, the situation has worsened so much that we only choose certain hours to put it on, or fuel it with our own money. I think this has to do with the recent price hike of fuel and gas in the country,” he said.

The village head explained that the hospital admits pregnant women, children, and even patients “from countries like Niger Republic, and Chad, not to mention people from almost all the northern parts of the country.

“Communities in Ungogo LGA alone, approximately about 100, come to this hospital for treatment, yet we have only one medical doctor who treats them all.

“I know the government is trying because it was former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who renovated some units, while the current Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje constructed the perimeter fencing, but we still have serious problems in this hospital.”

It was gathered that the chairman of the local government recently built a toilet in the maternity ward, which remains the only toilet worth using in the entire hospital.

“The issue of toilets is so bad that even I don’t fancy looking at them, not to mention going inside. The one the chairman built for us is not enough, we need more,” the village head said.

He also said that the hospital lacks adequate security personnel.

“Even though we were provided with some Hisbah and vigilante security, this is a general hospital with staff quarters, so, we need more,” he added.

In Kano State, where there’ve been complaints about how the negligence of health workers has been resulting in patients’ deaths, workers and the community are putting in their best to keep Bela hospital afloat, albeit with little support from the government.

The effort of the village has resulted in the establishment of a committee tagged ‘Hospital Friends’ which Bashir, as the Village head, is part of.

“The committee was set up two months ago by the Hospital’s Zonal Director Abdullahi Isma’il Kwalwa to analyse and document the hospital’s problems whenever there’s one, then move it forward, or offer a solution.

“So far, we’ve been able to solve small issues in the hospital with the aid of the zonal director and the Admin of Bela Hospital.

“Right now, we are trying to solve the issue of diverters who has been bothering us for so long.

“Diverters are people that come from outside the hospital to divert our patients from buying medicines from our pharmaceutical stores to their own or friends,” he said.

Bashir also pleaded with the government to construct an Accident and Emergency unit for the hospitable, and make available ambulances for emergency situations. 

Work load too much – Staff

Efforts to reach the management of the hospital proved abortive, as the Secretary of the hospital said he has no authority to talk on the issue and refused to refer our reporter to any officer who has the authority to.

However, a staff of the hospital, who asked not to be named, contradicted the claim that the hospital has no potable water, saying the government has provided them with three boreholes, and a machine that carries water from the holes to the tank attached to it.

“The only problem is that we have no taps, so you have to go all the way to the maternity ward, where the tank is, to fetch water. But you hardly find it (the tank) empty,” he said.

“And yes, it is true we have very few health workers. We have only one medical officer, 17 nurses, six pharmacy technicians, and five laboratory technicians. This hospital is the only General Hospital in Ungogo, so the workload is too much for him,” he said. 

We have established a committee to look into the matter – Govt

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Kano State Hospitals Management Board, Ibrahim Mu’azzam, said a committee has already been instituted to look into the matter and will report back to the Board.

Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that after our reporter’s visit to the hospital and subsequent inquiries, the said committee visited the hospital this week.