The doctors’ strike cast a pall of gloom over Maitama District Hospital and other government hospitals in Abuja on Tuesday, May 6 as patients waited wearily for hours, their frustration and anxiety growing with each unanswered call.
A visit to the maternity ward at Maitama District Hospital by Peak Newspaper Nigeria correspondents painted a vivid picture of the disruption.
Pregnant women, seeking vital antenatal care, encountered significant delays, the overwhelmed nurses struggling to provide care amidst the striking doctors’ absence.
In an interview with Persecondnews, Mrs. Mabel Odion, one of the pregnant women, expressed deep frustration about the poor service and the exorbitant hospital fees they were being asked to pay.
She said: “Just put yourself in my shoes as a pregnant woman. My tummy is constantly aching and unbearable, and I have to wait hours to see a nurse, someone I did not even come here to see in the first place.
“Then there is the increase in medication costs after being delayed here, and you still have to go to the pharmacy unit, only to find out that the prices have doubled.”
Terhemba Johnson, another patient, who had been waiting tirelessly in the Family Medicine Ward, said that if he had been informed about the strike, he would not have come to the hospital in the first place.
He said: “These government hospitals are the only ones affordable for the poor masses. But when the poor masses come for treatment, they are either faced with unannounced doctors’ strikes or sudden hikes in fees.
“I came here expecting to pay N1200 for consultation. Do you know how much I just paid? N2500! That is more than a 100% increase. What exactly is the government going to give as a reason for this new burden?
“The increase is not just in the consultation fee; fees for tests, operations, and even medication are the worst.”
At the payment counter, Persecondnews reporters learnt of significant fee increases: emergency ward consultation had risen to N4,700 from N3,500, pediatrics to N2,700 from N1,500, and family medicine to N2,000 from N1,200.
While going round the hospital, this reporter witnessed a distressing scene: an unconscious man lay in a car’s back seat as his frantically crying wife begged for entry.
Tragically, security guards at the gate turned them away, citing the ongoing doctors’ strike and directing them to another hospital.
