Edo State chapter of Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has raised the alarm over what it described as the sorry state of health facilities in the state, regretting that doctors are using candles in hospital wards rather than electricity.
It, therefore, urged the state government to revamp health care facilities in the state to stop unnecessary deaths in hospitals. The state chairman of NMA, Dr Emmanuel Osaigbovo, who raised the alarm while briefing journalists in Benin City, urged the state government to declare state of emergency in the health sector.
He said: "Today, there is hardly any functional ward that is befitting for the people to recover from their infirmities. The wards are dilapidated and ironically pose a major health risk to those who are being cared for and those who render services therein.
"In some of these obsolete facilities, doctors in their usual zeal to work resort to the use of candles and personal rechargeable lanterns when the authorities fail to provide basic electricity. The buildings are falling apart in their numbers due to lack of maintenance.
"We seriously hope that there is no collapse of one of those buildings on people who have come to the hospital to get better or on those who have come there to make people feel better.
There is no greater catastrophe than that. "The theatres and laboratories are at best skeletal in the services they render due to lack of basic equipment and consumables. Patients have to seek help in peripheral facilities and most times fall into the hands of quacks."
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