The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has explained that its decision to set up public inquiry on December 2, 2019, robbery attack victim, Miss Moradeun Balogun, was to ascertain probable violations of her rights as a patient and create awareness for patients’ rights among Nigerians.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Mr Babatunde Irukera, in an interview with the media after the two-day public inquiry, held in Lagos, recently, insisted that the purpose of bringing every stakeholder involved, including the managements of the hospitals the deceased was rushed to, before the panel, was for ’fact-finding’, and not to apportion blame.
Irukera insisted that though every hospital patient, has some rights, including that of fair treatment, when at the hospital premises, according to the nation’s constitution, he however expressed his disappointment that a negligible few are actually aware of such rights.
The FCCPC boss added that the decision to be involved in the late Moradeun’s case was to ascertain whether her rights, as a patient, were trampled on by the medical establishments she was taken to.
“Following the death of Miss Moradeun Balogun in Lagos, on December 2, 2019, after she was allegedly refused treatment by a hospital on account of not possessing a Police report, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) opened an investigation to determine possible violation of consumer/patient rights under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) and other relevant enactments.
”The aim is to know whether there are some things that could have been done differently. And we also wanted to also be sure whether, if those things were done differently, the late Moradeun would have been alive today.
“By setting up this inquiry, we hope to use it as a platform to correct some of those anomalies in the nation’s healthcare system, and possibly make recommendations.
”We believe our time will not be in vain, if it leads to what must change, if it leads to awareness. For instance, people die from emergency far more than they die from communicable and non-communicable diseases, because it’s a race against time,” the FCCPC’s boss added.
Speaking to the media at the conclusion of the inquiry, the deceased’s father, Mr Balogun commended the federal government, for putting the inquiry together, through the Commission.
”I think we should do this more often. We should do it to find out facts. Though it’s not going to bring back my daughter, but I believe it’s going to stop this type of thing from happening again. It’s rather unfortunate that some doctors are not upholding the ethics of their profession. Some are just being lackadaisical, while some the level of their competence is questionable. We should have training and retraining of these doctors. Government should also ensure that these health facilities have the required tools, and they should categorise these hospitals, because some of them are not qualified being called hospitals.
The Medical Director, Rjolad Hospital, Dr Funsho Oladipo, called for a complete overhaul of the system.