REPORT: Patients, relatives lament difficulties accessing healthcare at KWASUTH
CMD blames payment challenges on striking revenue staff…
By Mosunmola Ayobami, Ilorin
Patients and their relatives have lamented difficulties accessing healthcare services at the Kwara State University Teaching Hospital (KWASUTH), Ilorin, amid complaints about delays in obtaining medical cards and securing consultation slots.
When Western Post visited the facility on Thursday, scores of patients were seen at the medical records department waiting to retrieve their cards after obtaining numbered tallies that allowed them to consult medical personnel.
A patient’s relative, Mrs. Esther, told Western Post that she had secured a consultation number for her patient as early as 4 a.m. after spending the night at the hospital. However, some other patients who arrived later were unable to obtain numbers by 7:30 a.m. because the daily quota of 100 patients for consultations had been exhausted.
One of the affected patients, Tayo Adeola, who had a dermatology clinic appointment scheduled for noon on Thursday, said she could not secure a consultation number as of 7:34 a.m. because all 15 slots allocated to the clinic had reportedly been taken.
Adeola alleged that some names on the list used to issue consultation numbers were fictitious and urged the hospital management to investigate the practice and address the situation. Meanwhile, other patients complained about delays in retrieving their medical cards at the records department, saying they could not afford to pay for new ones.
In response to an earlier report alleging extortion, an official at the records department said the hospital would henceforth retrieve the cards of all patients returning for consultations and take them to the General Outpatient Department at once, instead of releasing them in batches as previously practised.
When contacted by telephone, the Chief Medical Director of KWASUTH, Dr. Ahmed AbdulKadir, attributed the payment difficulties to the ongoing strike by staff of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS).
AbdulKadir said the industrial action had disrupted payment processes at the hospital, making it impossible to register new medical folders or complete other transactions requiring payment. He added that even a patient scheduled for surgery on Thursday could not proceed with the operation because the required payment could not be made.
