My ordeal at AKTH

By Abubakar Ismail Kankara

A good hospital in any society serves as a centre where quality health care, patient safety and accessibility are available and expected to be provided. It is a place where humanity is displayed and all patients are respected and cared for. But the opposite was the case when, about two weeks ago, exactly on the 12th of October 2024, after I collapsed and became unconscious in my office. Unfortunately for me, I was rushed to the emergency unit of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano.

Two of my colleagues, Muhammad Sani Dan’iya Muhasa and Auwal Hussain Dukawuya, rushed me to the hospital.

My ordeal started with the payment of the hospital fee; according to my colleagues, it is the hospital’s policy for a patient not to be to until he makes some payment to open a file, even if it’s an emergency case like mine.

One of them went to the cashier to make the payment, and he had to wait for about an hour because the cashier was not on sit.

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Imagine only one person attending to so many patients with so many in critical conditions left stranded and helpless. He later emerged, and the payment was made. Then I was wheeled to see a doctor, who gave me a first aid treatment to regain my consciousness. After some injections and drips, I regained my consciousness, and I was later transferred to the Aminu Alhassan Dantata new emergency unit.

At the emergency unit, another payment was to be made before I could be attended to, and my colleague went back to the same cash point; and just like his first visit, the cashier was not on sit again. It took a while before he came back and the payment was made.

After a while, a doctor examined me and placed me on another medication. Another trouble developed as the third trip to the cash point was to be made for payment for the drugs, injections, and drips.

Again there was another delay as the cashier was not on seat. He later emerged after some minutes. I waited for about an hour before the medications were dispensed.

While in my wheelchair, I witnessed one of the most mind-boggling experiences. I witnessed how one doctor kept shouting on patients and directing them out of the emergency hall because their payments were not processed.

The doctor’s action starkly betrayed the Hippocratic Oath he took upon graduation from medical school, not minding the situation they were in.

In my presence (sitting in the wheelchair), the doctor ordered a patient to be brought down from the sick bed while still unconscious; though his relatives went to make the payments, the same case with a woman whose siblings went to make payments; the doctor ordered the woman to be brought down and asked her to walk out of the hall.

However, the most terrifying situation was when a woman brought in a wheelchair to the new emergency unit died while sitting unattended to because the cashier was not on seat to receive payments.

The management of AKTH should look into this policy for a reversal, as it’s too draconian and lacks empathy and care, which every hospital should have.

I think doctors are expected to save lives, but then I realise that doctors can do otherwise.