A group of prominent indigenous Lagosians, under the aegis of Ọmọ Eko Pataki, has called on the state government to immediately infuse funds towards ensuring a more effective healthcare programme that will upgrade its hospitals, motivate the health workers and stop the avoidable deaths in the state.
Trustee of the group, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju (rtd.), made the call on Monday in a statement made available to newsmen in reaction to the death of the group’s member, Prince Muis Shodipe-Dosunmu, who died a few days ago at the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Yaba, of COVID-19 scourge.
According to Olanrewaju, who noted that he too was a victim of the scourge, while he experienced “tremendous pains, with an excruciating vice grip on the lungs, the racking throttling of the throat, the persistent, savaging cough, the gasping heavy breath for life,” but survived them all through the grace of Allah, the passing of Sodipe-Dosunmu, who was also the State Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was avoidable.
Olanrewaju, who is also former Minister of Communications, posited that the present situation was really disheartening, saying Shodipe-Dosunmu would have been saved if the state government had prioritized her responsibilities in the health sector.
This was just as he noted sadly that needless deaths were recorded every day because Lagos State oxygen plants were of inadequate supply, saying patients die when the central oxygen supply abruptly ceases, when power supply suddenly goes off, and when the dialysis machines at the IDH are reduced to an object of politicization.
“We at Omo EKO Pataki are now urging the Lagos State government to urgently live up to her responsibilities by immediately infusing funds to a more effective healthcare program that will upgrade our hospitals, motivate the health workers and stop the avoidable deaths in our state,” he said.
“The doctors and nurses are often ill-equipped to tackle the challenges of COVID. They subjected Muis to various cocktails of drugs which eventually impaired his kidneys.
“Every day his elder brother Prince Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu was given different prescriptions. For thirteen days of living hell, Uthman procured a vast array of medications at 68, Army Reference Hospital until life ebbed out of him inside an ambulance with a single nurse who was not even equipped with a mere syringe.
“He died as he was rushed for dialysis on the grounds of St Nicholas in Maryland,” he added.
Speaking further, the elder statesman posited that the state government had enough financial muscles to make COVID-19 vaccines available on its own accord instead of waiting for the Federal Government to supply them from its own stocks, even as he noted that many patients cannot afford the cost of treatment which often runs into millions.
“This is a hard chew for those who are struggling with poverty and other challenges of existence.
“Culturally, people live in extended family contact. It will be difficult to treat COVID-19 cases at home. What are plans of the state for treating COVID-19 in the schools, in the markets and other public places?” the former minister queried.
“Wouldn’t it be a good idea if our elected representatives could use their constituency projects funds to set temporary IDHs in their senatorial districts? Many lives would be saved!” he added.
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