Deplorable condition of general hospitals in Rivers state.

In Rivers state, while residents of some local government areas can boast of functional health care facilities including general hospitals, others are left to travel far distance to use the general hospitals in other locations.

General hospitals are ordinarily established to attend to all types of medical and surgical cases, concentrating on patients with critical illnesses, needing relatively short-term care.

However, this is not the case for some general hospitals in Rivers state, some of which have almost been reduced to primary health centers.

A visit to some of the general hospitals in the state by Today FM’s Ifunanya Obeme-Ndukwe showed either entirely abandoned facilities or dysfunctional ones not adequate to cater for the health needs of the people.

In Degema Local Government area for example, we observed that there are no doctors in the general hospital which its renovation was said to have been abandoned by the contractor.

A health worker in the facility disclosed that blood pressure check, cervical cancer screening and family planning are the only health services being rendered in the facility.

“The General hospital is still under renovation. We are hoping on them to at least, without wasting time help the community in making sure they finish the renovation.

“For now we are trying our best. We even have limited staff, but the ones that are on ground we are trying our best to at least, we are undergoing normal BP checkup, cervical cancer and family planning, at least to be keeping the place working. But if not there is nothing much that is going on.

“For a period of time now, the renovation has been suspended, we do not know the reason, it’s best known to the contractor and to the state government.

“We are still hoping on them to to come back and finish the work. There is no medical doctor, we only have the chief matron in charge.”

The situation is the same in Ahoada West Local Government Area, where residents complained of lack of attention in the facility since 1967 when the general hospital was taken over by the state government.

An indigene of the area said the only functional area in the general hospital is the mortuary.

Similarly, in Emohua Local Government Area, one of the general hospitals in the area, located in Elele-Alimini community has been abandoned for years after workers in the hospital were relieved of their jobs.

In Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government Area, we observed that the zonal general hospital is functioning but at a very minimal capacity.

We also observed that the facility has almost been covered by grasses.

According to a worker who we met at the facility, the state government had awarded the contract for the renovation of the hospital since 2016 but has been abandoned by the contractor.

“The hospital is functional but it’s not in a full swing because of the renovation work that was taken by the Rivers State government and the renovation work has been abandoned because of lack of fund.

“The renovation is a total renovation of the hospital area covering the wards, and administrative unit and also the staff quarters.

“They have completed that of the staff quarters but the ward area and administrative unit has been abandoned. They said the renovation work started since 2016.”

The respondent explained that only minor medical services are carried out in the facility.

“The ward area is abandoned, I mean no admission is coming in and even the maternity unit nothing is happening there.

“We are not admitting medical cases, we are not admitting antenatal cases. They don’t even come for their delivery although the come for their booking but when it is time for the it delivery they go to the health centre.

“The only thing we do here is, the doctor attend to the patient and some minor medical cases that she can attend to in emergency or casualty.”

The worker also complained of shortage of staff in the hospital and for employment of health workers.

“I want the government to come for full renovation of the hospital. I am going out (retiring), I want the younger ones to replace me. We have a problem of shortage of staff.”

The case is however different at the general hospital in Ogale, Eleme Local Government area as the facility appeared to be in full operation.

But the Medical Director at the facility raised concerns about the cost of clearing the grasses in the premises every month.

“Before this time, a lot of them were going to Okrika general hospital and Bori. So, since I came in 2020 during the COVID era, we’ve tried our best to make sure that Eleme people come to eleme general hospital and that has been working fantastic.

“I think the only challenge we have is the environment. You can see the grasses grow so fast because of the rainy season and it’s causing us so much money to always cut this grass.

“Almost every month, it cost us close to a hundred and something thousand and we don’t have that kind of money to keep on doing it.

“We actually met with the local govenermnent Chairman and his vice and they promised to come visit and weve not seen them but hopefully we hope they could help us.

“Not financially alone, but even if they can get us their laborers, come cut this place every two weekly, that will help this place. But for patients, we are very grateful that they are coming now.

“Staff strength is low from now but we are managing with what what we have.”

It was a similar case in Terabor, where a General Hospital is located in Gokana Local Government Area.

We met some patients in the facility who commended the health workers for their services.

One of the patients said, “You can rate them, let me say, ninety five percent because human being cannot be perfect in every area.

“I see them visiting people in the ward so, when we come in we see nurses. Some of them live within the hospital. They are always available, one of them is within the community here.”

A worker in the hospital also confirmed that the general hospital is running in its full capacity.

”When it comes to functionality of the general hospital, we want to say that general hospital, Terabo is the best because we render services beyond imagination.

“We don’t have delay when you come. Now we have basically two doctors though he comes everyday from Port Harcourt, that’s the MD we’re talking about here

“We say more patients everyday compared to that of Bodo. Sometimes we’re overwhelmed. It goes crazy because you work and get tired.

“There was light in the local government but for the past month we had issue that affected almost four local government which is Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme, so since then we’ve not been having light.”

It was entirely a different ball game in Tai Local Government Area which is left with no general hospital.

The Paramount Ruler of Horo community, Chief Nkosi Baribure, said Tai people are made to travel to Bori in Khana Local Government to access health care services.

“We Tai people, at least within Tai here as Horo is the centre of Tai here, we suppose to have a general hospital.

“If the government can help us and convert that place into a general hospital and complete the job I think Tai people will be happy.

“Like now, when we have emergency, before we get to Bori it’s difficult for us. If you don’t have means, at least before the patient will get down there sometimes there most be casualties along the line, so we need a general hospital in Tai.

Speaking on whether they have made any request for a general hospital, the paramount ruler said, “Well we have not made any request. At least when we go to Tai Counsel of Chiefs and Elders, they have been talking about a general hospital but our leaders, they did not make proper request.

“We have a senator now which may be available for us to get such amenities. 

“The only one on ground now is that of the HYPREP. HYPREP is between the four local governments, it’s not personally for Tai and we don’t know when this job will end.”

Today FM has made frantic effort to reach out to the Rivers state ministry of health and other health authorities to respond to the issues but to no avail.

While we await the response of the state ministry of health, it is hoped that the dysfunctional general hospitals in various parts of the state are given the attention they require.