Hospitals rejecting gunshot victims to bag five-year jail henceforth, Police affirms
…As Family of killed Ericsson engineer blames hospital, seeks justice
As tension heightens over the rejection of a Lagos gunshot victim and senior systems engineer with Ericsson, late Mr. Adebayo Akinwunmi, who was shot dead by armed robbers, the Lagos State Police Command, has given final warning to all hospital authorities against the rejection of gunshot victims.
The Police also made it clear that Hospital should never ask for Police report before beginning to rescue and treat any gunshot victim brought to its hospital.
A press statement signed by the Command’s spokesman, Superintendent of Police Chike Oti, said the Command repeated the warning following a report that one hospital in Ikeja rejected a gunshot victim.
Police revealed that “A senior engineer with an information and communications technology company, Mr. Adebayo Akinwunmi, was shot and wounded by armed robbers in his house at Ofada-Mokoloki, Ogun State”.
“He was taken to a hospital in Ikeja for treatment, but was allegedly refused admission on the grounds that there was no Police report.
“The Command considers the action of the 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.
“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 hours of the commencement of treatment.
According, the statement continued, “The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Mr. Imohimi Edgal, has directed all Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers in the state to henceforth prosecute any medical practitioners who reject gunshot victims for reasons of no Police report.
“Medical doctors should note that the Act recommends a five-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 noted.
In an interview, the diseased elder brother, Tunde Akinwunmi, who urged that the Police to get the suspects arrested, said the victim could have been saved if he got medical attention on time.
Aggrieved Tunde averred that “My pain is really about the hospital that rejected him. The wife told me that Reddington was his company’s hospital and she insisted that we took him there that night. My pain is that we passed several hospitals to get to Reddington. When we got there, they did not even touch my brother. The wife was shouting and begging, but they said I should go and get a police report. I said the requirement had been cancelled by the government. I asked them to first stabilise him, then other things could come afterwards. But they said I should go to LASUTH, because the hospital handles such cases. Reddington was our only hope, but they disappointed us.
“We went to LASUTH, but unfortunately, the doctors were on strike. The surgical emergency was locked. The security men said they locked the patients inside because of the strike.
“When I got to medical emergency, they said the case was not for them because it was surgical. I begged them to attend to us. By the time a doctor came to check him, it was too late. He simply pronounced him dead.”
