Why accident emergency centre of LUTH was closed - CMD

Muda Oyeniran, Lagos - 19.02.2008

The Chief Medical Director(CMD), Lagos University Teaching Hospital(LUTH), Professor Akin Osibogun, has cited insecurity of lives of doctors and nurses as the reason for the temporary closure of the Accident and Emergency Centre of the hospital.

According to Professor Osibogun, doctors and nurses at the centre were forced to run away following threat by a crowd who accompanied an accident victim to the centre last Friday to kill them should their patient die. The patient, according to him, eventually died because there were no doctors around to attend to her. This, he said, led to violent protest from sympathizers who broke the doors and windows of the hospital.

Professor Osibogun, who spoke at a press conference in Lagos on Monday, said he could not blame the doctors and nurses for running away because the hospital had lost a member of staff in a similar circumstance before. “This time round, no doctor or nurse was willing to stay back to make an unruly mob see reason.

The unfortunate consequence of the action of this crowd of sympathizers was to drive away the very people who could save the life of the patient.Thus these "sympathisers"ensured the death of the patient,” he added.