WALE AKINSELURE visited Oni Memorial Children’s Hospital in Ibadan recently to treat his child. He narrates his experience at the hospital.
Though the warnings were loud and clear, I was keen on giving Oni Memorial Children’s Hospital, the benefit of the doubt. Moreover, for parents seeking medical care for their children, this is a hospital, over the years, renowned as one of the leading paediatric clinics in Oyo State.
One of the warnings I got was that the hospital days of glory were long gone. Notwithstanding the warnings, I still went with the belief that all would be well.
The hospital is the first compound on Oni and Sons Way, off Basorun M.K.O Abiola, Ring Road, Ibadan. The building was donated to the Oyo/Western state government to serve as a pediatric hospital by Chief Theophilus Adediran Oni popularly called ‘Oni and Sons’ or ‘Oni o suwon’, a philanthropist and construction giant.
Oni was born in Oke Mesi town, Ekiti State in 1913 and he died in February 1975. His company was one of the first indigenous construction companies in Nigeria and he was known for his philanthropic activities, the most famous of which is the donation of his sprawling family estate built on 15 acres of land, to government.
The 65-room building known then as Goodwill House is outfitted with modern conveniences; outside garage, staff apartment, horse stable, Olympic size swimming pool and various state-of-the-art facilities. It was donated to the government and it is what is now known as T. A. Oni Memorial Children Hospital popularly called “Oni Memorial.”
Walking into the compound through the pedestrian gate, I asked the gate keeper if this was the back gate. Lo and behold, he told me I was at the main gate.
My curiosity was because I had looked forward to a beautiful entrance and structure, not this old-looking entrance with overgrown bushes directly opposite the gate.
Unmoved, I walked in with the belief that the outward appearance may not tell the true picture of what was inside.
On the previous day, I was told to arrive as early as possible so as to be among the lucky set of 20 persons only that would be attended to that day.
I arrived the hospital at about 6.20am and was number eight on the list. The first parent said she arrived with her child a few minutes past 5am.
I thought I could still take my child to school and resume on time at work that day. Little did I know I was in for a full day at the hospital.
A few minutes before 8am, some of the hospital staff began to show up. The sound of footsteps against the tiled floor woke some patients who attempted to complete their shortened night’s sleep at the hospital.
While we sat at the long brown benches in an open space, there came peddlers of all sorts.
Then came the much-awaited staff to issue cards to first timers or search for the files of those who already had hospital cards.
From inside a small room, her voice came, ‘Number one.’
But, just before the call of numbers, a staff in white dress came to address everyone on the protocols at the hospital.
“Good morning, e kaaro,” she started with. Then, she announced that patients will be called by their numbers first, get a white piece of paper; afterwards, they can go to make payment at the cash office, return to have their child weighed and temperature taken.
This is to be followed by patients being called by numbers again into another room to make their complaints to the doctor or nurse.
She said, on most occasions, the doctor or nurse asks to go and do some tests at the laboratory. Then, according to her, you come back to wait for test results.
When results are brought to the doctor, then there is the third calling of numbers where prescriptions are made before one leaves.
She reeled out these protocols in English and Yoruba, but ended by saying, “This is Oni and Sons. When you come here, you are here for a full day. I see some children here in school uniforms; you better call their schools that they are not coming today. Some of you are dressed for work; you better call your office that you aren’t coming to work today. Some of you plan to go and open your shop; it’s not happening today. Here in Oni and Sons, it’s a full day’s walk with us.”
In my mind, I thought “madam, all these protocols can be completed in no time.” I was mistaken.
I shouted hurray when number eight was called to pay and get a card as a first timer. This happened some minutes past 9am.
After payment, the woman cut the blue card and gave me a white piece of paper to proceed to have the weight and temperature of my child taken.
We returned to take our seat to wait to be called in by the doctor or nurse to lay our complaints.
Meanwhile, you are advised upon entry to “come with your change” to pay and collect the receipt which carried, ‘Oyo State Hospitals Management Board.’ One receipt bore, ‘Pay-As-You-Eat Deposit,’ another bore, ‘Miscellaneous.’
A staff wearing blue uniform wearing white gloves who we saw sweeping the floor, was still the one with the mandate to call in patients to see the doctor.
Minutes to 11am, number eight was called to see the doctor. We made our complaints to the female doctor who had a hijab on. The doctor who calmly spoke to us then wrote the tests we were to do at the laboratory.
On getting to the laboratory, we joined the queue for the blood sample of my child to be taken.
Some minutes to 12 noon, it was my turn and the blood sample was taken and I was asked to return to the waiting area to sit.
The wait for the test result turned out to be the longest wait as all of us including ‘number one’ had to return to the waiting area.
As the wait clocked an hour, my belly demanded to be filled. I then went just behind the seats where the snacks seller waited for us.
While gulping the drink, patients who were not first timers told us the first timers that whenever they come to Oni Memorial, they know they would be there for a full day.
We were told that this was always the norm, but that they knew that since they couldn’t afford to take their children to private hospitals where they would pay more, they were willing to give their full day to subscribe to less expensive medical care that Oni and Sons affords them.
At about 12 noon, number 18 voiced out her displeasure at not being called in to see the doctor. However, she was sent back into her shell when one of the nurses told her, “Don’t come here shouting at us. Are we playing here? If you can’t wait, you leave. When it is your turn, you will be called.”
Beginning to get tired of sitting at one spot, I went around the hospital.
The toilets looked unkempt, abandoned and dreadful, forcing one to “answer nature’s call” in the nearby bush.
But while the wait to call numbers lasted, there were those without numbers who were allowed to jump the queue and have their way.
Asked why some persons were allowed to jump the queue, a hospital staff responded saying that the doctor specially asked them to come.
But on the sidelines, one of the old-time patients, unsurprised, told us first-timers that one can jump the queue if one can ‘establish connections’ with a nurse or doctor.
While the wait lasted, a child was rushed in as an emergency case. Interestingly, the child was quickly attended to by the doctors and resuscitated.
However, the staff were also quick not to admit the emergency patient, but was referred to the University College Hospital (UCH).
After over two hours, at some minutes past 2pm, we heaved a sigh of relief when a laboratory staff brought the results.
However, results were not to be handed over directly to the doctors or nurses. It was only the female staff who called us in using numbers that could receive the results.
Interestingly, she was nowhere to be found. The lab staff then said she had to return to the laboratory and asked us to tell the ‘number-calling’ staff to come get the results from the lab whenever she returns.
Not long after, the ‘number-calling’ staff returned with a broom and waste basket in hand, saying she had gone to sweep some other places in the hospital.
Upon getting the result, she called us number by number where various doctors made prescriptions to each patient based on the test results.
It was already past 3pm when we were called in and attended to.
True to the nurse’s words from the beginning, it was a full day at Oni and Sons as we exited the gate at about 4pm, feeling frustrated and stressed out.
But there was a second experience of a stressful day to come as I was asked to return in two weeks for a review of my child’s state of health.
One would think coming a second time would be any different or shorter. No! It was the same protocol all over again, another eight to nine hours spent within Oni Memorial.
When I exited Oni Memorial on the second day of appointment, I dusted my pair of black sandals. Looking at my wife, I rhetorically asked, “Would I ever want to experience such a stress, frustration at Oni and Sons again? Could they have offered same services without unnecessary waste of time? Are they so short-staffed? What is government doing to revamp facilities in its own hospitals? Is this what Theophilus Oni desired when he handed over the facility to the state government? Is this another example of our poor maintenance culture?”
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