University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital originally commenced its operations in 1980 and was officially commissioned by the federal government in 1985. When it started out, there were 60 beds mainly in use. After relocating to its permanent site in 2006, the hospital’s capacity was expanded to 500 beds.

 

University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital is managed through a three-tier managerial system consisting – the Board of Management, Hospital Management Committee (HMC) and the Departments. Nearly 200,000 patients are seen annually in both outpatient and inpatient settings, as well as over 3000 surgical operations a year. Average bed occupancy rate in 12 months has risen above 70%. Besides offering medical services, the hospital tends to provide clinical education and training to students, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Over the years, many research activities and results from its organized units have appeared on several major national and international medical and scientific journals.

 

ENTRANCE TO UPTH ADMIN BLOCK

When the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) embarked on strike last year, one of their reasons was the management’s insensitivity to the security of lives and property of her staff. Today, UPTH is in the news again not because of a medical feat recorded or a new discovery by researchers in the centre but because of the recent kidnap of a female resident doctor (working with the Anaesthesiology unit) while on call on Friday,24th February 2017 . Surprisingly, though not unexpected among Nigerian doctors, the colleagues of the kidnapped resident doctor are still busy consulting in their clinics, attending to patients in their respective wards whereas those in the operating theatres are still busy operating on their booked patients. Nigerian doctors seem to be the only professionals that do not pay attention to their lives or those of their colleagues. Imagine only threat to kidnap a judge could make all judges in a state to stop sitting until that tension is defused by the appropriate authorities but for doctors, any of their members kidnapped is nothing hence work must continue even if the kidnapped colleague is found dead ,that is also irrelevant to the practice of medicine in Nigeria.

 

Rising from an emergency meeting held on Monday,27/02/17,the UPTH ARD members resolved that they would not be working beyond 6pm each day if the security of their lives and property would not be guaranteed by the management. You heard me right, that was all they could do while their colleague, a married woman, is still in the kidnappers’ den. Even students in our varsities would paralyse all activities in their school even during examination period until their colleague is released. To worsen the matter, a rumour suspected to have emanated from the management claims that the resident doctor was kidnapped outside the hospital premises in order to douse the tension among other staff of the hospital and as a cover up of the total security collapse in the hospital. However, the peddlers of this rumour have forgotten in May last year, how another female doctor was attacked about 7:45pm after withdrawing money from the ATM of a new generation bank near the office of the CMAC. Her money and other belongings were collected from her by the attackers and till today the matter was neither reported to the police nor investigated.

 

THE CMD,UPTH

Also, the peddlers of that rumour have equally forgotten how another set of two female House officers were robbed in the night last year on their way back to the House Officers’ Quarters (H.O.Q.) after attending to their patients. Where were the rumour mongers when a female resident doctor was robbed last year inside the hospital at gunpoint and she lost her bag and other personal belongings to the hoodlums?  All these ugly incidents always take place at nights in the dark areas where the management has flagrantly refused to install security lights. Our reporter, Mrs Ekeh Josephine, went round the hospital to sample opinions of the members of the hospital community. Looking at the current security arrangement in UPTH, one may not be perturbed while these social vices are still occurring there. The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Professor Aaron Ojule, is the only one whose presence attracts armed security details. Their patrol vehicle will be stationed in front of the office of the CMD once the CMD is around and the patrol vehicle will disappear once the CMD leaves the hospital. The former security firm for the hospital had her services terminated recently after the management allegedly  could not pay them and the management engaged the services of Man-O-War for the security of the university community.

 

There are many challenges of the hospital and if security challenges are allowed to add up to the pre-existing challenges, that will be too much for the members of the university community. The issue of mosquitoes in the centre is nothing to write home about. The mosquitoes found in the hospital are bigger in sizes than houseflies and they are there to make the patient’s stay in the hospital very uncomfortable. The management seems to be overwhelmed by these mosquitoes as any attempt to fumigate the place would be counterproductive. After each fumigation, the number and sizes of the mosquitoes would increase. It seems as if the chemicals the fumigators used in the fumigation were the rightful ‘diets’ for the massive growth and survival of the mosquitoes. A doctor who pleaded anonymity told our reporter that once a patient was admitted in the hospital, the doctors would keep in view prescribing anti-malarial medications some days later. It is very necessary for entomologists to visit UPTH to study the species of the mosquitoes found there, the mosquitoes normally start their attack as early as 4pm and will not stop until it is 7am the next day. Apart from mosquitoes, there are different species of snakes in the hospital.  Our reporter was reliably informed that a house officer stepped on a snake while going to administer medications to her patient in the ward one night. I need not talk about how snakes regularly visit the rooms on the ground floor of the H.O.Q.

 

OTHER VIEW OF THE HOSPICE

Our reporter was informed that a big snake was once killed in somebody’s office in the second floor of the hospital’s main building, very close to the Orthopaedic unit. In fact, in 2014 a pregnant woman in the O & G private ward located at the first floor of the building would have been bitten by a ravenous snake had God not intervened. That was the era of incessant power outage in the hospital where the generating set would be switched off before 10pm. The pregnant woman woke up in the night to urinate. While groping in the dark, she felt another movement in the bathroom, she rushed for her phone to see what it was, and she could not believe what she saw as her shout alerted everybody within the vicinity of the impending danger . A combined team of resident doctors on call that night, patients’ relatives and other members of the hospital community gathered together to kill the big snake. There are many other challenges of the hospital which are too numerous to mention here. Do we talk about the cardiac patients on admissions that are made to climb the medical wards of the hospital located at the third and fourth floors of the hospital? At times, these patients would be found gasping for air while climbing these floors daily. The elevators attached to the hospital only work when either the minister or any dignitary is visiting the hospital thereafter it will remain moribund till such visit next time. I advise the resident doctors to make an arrangement for their own security to forestall this ugly occurrence. Patrol vehicles equally need to pack outside their own offices while they are around and disappear when they close for work

 

By Blessing Ihemere,

Port Harcourt