The Lagos State Command of the Nigeria Police
Force has stated that any hospital, private or public, that fails to treat a
patient with gunshot injury on the premise of no police report shall be
“arrested and diligently prosecuted”.
This was made known in a press statement signed by the Lagos
Command Police Public Relations Officer SP Chike Oti in reaction to a
publication by Punch Newspaper that two private hospitals, including Reddington
Hospital, refused to treat Adebayo Akinwunmi, an engineer who was shot by armed
robbers in his house, for the lack of a Police report.
The Police described the action of Reddington Hospital “as cruel;
perhaps, an indication that the hospital management may be ignorant of the
"Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017.”
The statement reads: “In the light of this development, the
Command wishes to inform all medical practitioners in Lagos state, that the Act
demands that every hospital in Nigeria whether public or private shall accept
or receive for immediate and adequate treatment with or without police
clearance any person with gunshot wounds.
“The Act, however, requires the hospital treating such a patient
to report the fact to the nearest police station within two (2) hours of
commencement of treatment.”
According to the statement, the commissioner of Police, Imohime Edgal,
was distraught by this and he directed all Area Commanders and Divisional
Police Officers in Lagos State to henceforth arrest and diligently prosecute
any medical practitioner who rejects a gunshot victim on the ground of no
police report.
“The CP wants doctors to note that the Act recommends a
5-year-jail term for any person, hospital or authority who stands by or omits
to do his bit which results in the unnecessary death of any person with bullet
wounds,” the statement added.
Robbers broke into Akinwunmi’s house in Obafemi Owode Local
Government Area of the Ogun State around 1am on Sunday, shooting him in the rib
area before fleeing with some of the family’s valuables. However, when he was
rushed to a private facility in the area, he was rejected because he didn’t
have a police report. He was then taken to Reddington Hospital, the company
hospital, where he met a similar fate.
From there he was moved to the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital (LASUTH) but there was no surgeon to attend to him due to the ongoing
industrial action of health workers.
He eventually gave up the ghost at LASUTH.
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