The House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions has condemned the assault on a female doctor by family members of a deceased patient at the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, Nasarawa State.
The Chairman of the Committee, Amos Magaji, made the committee’s stance known shortly after members carried out an oversight visit at the FMC Keffi in Keffi Local Government Area of the state on Wednesday.
The four members of a deceased patient allegedly assaulted a female doctor on Tuesday, at about 11pm on the premises of the medical centre.
The victim was slapped several times while trying to pass a walkway overcrowded by the deceased patient’s family members.
Reacting to the development, Mr Magaji who said addressing the incident was the committee’s first engagement on entering the medical centre for their oversight function described it as unacceptable.
He said, “As a committee, we condemn it in clear terms. It is unacceptable for anybody to harass and assault any health worker. Anybody who does that will be handled accordingly. The law of Nigeria will take full effect to ensure that assault, intimidation, harassment of health workers must stop by all means.’’
He assured that his committee would ensure those accused of assaulting the female doctor were prosecuted and made to face the wrath of the law to serve as a deterrent to others.
“If we allow this to pass, people will continue to do it. We don’t want a situation where somebody will stab a doctor. We will bring these people to book and ensure they are punished,” he said.
Mr Magaji added that the committee also went round the medical centre and inspected projects executed by management of the centre within the 2022 and 2023 budget framework.
“Coming into this hospital, what we noticed is that the budgetary allocation for the hospital is by far too low to handle the patient load of this hospital. Nevertheless we have heard the challenges facing the hospital and we will see to it that intervention is done for this hospital and of course in the 2025 appropriation we will ensure enough money is appropriated for the hospital,” he said.
In an interview, the Chief Medical Director of FMC Keffi, Dr Ysahaya Adamu, appreciated the visit of the House of Representatives committee which he said would afford them to know firsthand some of the challenges facing the medical centre.
He said, “We thank them for coming and making very objective assessment of the situation we are in and I am sure they will look at us differently in the next year budget.’’
Mr Adamu who said that one of the four accused of assaulting a female doctor in the hospital had already been arrested assured that every necessary step was already being taken in conjunction with security agencies to arrest the remaining three to face justice.