NEWS DIGEST: In a distressing situation, pregnant women at the Jummai Babangida Maternal and Neonatal Wing of the General Hospital in Minna, Niger State, have voiced their concerns over the severe shortage of doctors and nurses. This shortage has resulted in significant delays and inadequate care for the hundreds of women seeking antenatal services at the facility.
According to City & Crime, when they visited the hospital on a Monday morning, they discovered a staggering number of over 300 women waiting for attention, while only one doctor was available to attend to them.
This dire situation highlights the tremendous strain placed on the hospital, which only has a total of six doctors.
Mrs. Blessing Uche, one of the pregnant women seeking care, shared her frustrating ordeal, revealing that some women arrived at the hospital as early as 5 am but were unable to receive attention due to the scarcity of medical staff.
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Zannan Sule, another pregnant woman, added that on certain occasions, the hospital officials informed them that there were only two available doctors, who could not attend to more than 40 women in a day.
An anonymous nurse bravely spoke up, disclosing the alarming working conditions faced by the medical staff. She revealed that none of the nurses had been able to take annual leave in the past year due to the lack of personnel to replace them.
The nurse further explained that the hospital had only four doctors and two consultants, with irregular attendance. She even cited an instance of a doctor working for an exhausting 24 hours, which is highly unorthodox.
Additionally, she shared that one nurse worked for 13 consecutive days without a shift rotation because there were not enough staff members available. To exacerbate matters, two volunteer nurses left abruptly on Friday without notifying anyone as they had not received their stipends for many months.
Efforts to obtain information from the hospital officials or from Dr. Mohammed Gana, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, proved to be futile as no one was willing to comment on the distressing situation.
