A Nigerian journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, in an investigative report has uncovered the state of corruption at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, popularly known as ‘Yaba Left.’
The undercover investigation which is in two parts is titled – Bed-space corruption, terrible food, well-fed rats… Many things not right at ‘Yaba Left’.
The journalist, became popular after an investigative report was done on Nigerian police in October 2019 titled – Drug Abuse, Sodomy, Bribery, Pimping – the Cash-and-Carry Operations of Ikoyi Prison.
The journalist after altering his looks and taking psychiatric lessons every day for one week, Fisayo Soyombo went under cover for three weeks in November, including 10 straight days on ward admission, as a patient at ‘Yaba Left.’
His report has unveiled the dilapidated state of hospital facilities, gross shortage of critical staff despite an over-inflated workforce, populated by ghost workers, low quality of service delivery, hiked charges on patients — all stemming from personal and institutional corruption and the hospital’s implicit stigmatizing of its very own patients.
Fisayo revealed he chose to do the report in order to have a first-hand experience of what it felt like to be a patient rather second-hand report and over two years of complaints about the standard of medical services.
The journalist after walking in to the psychiatric hospital like a cocaine drug addict who needed rehabilitation was told there were limited bed-space, but learnt he had to bribe staffs before he could get a bed-space.
The report reads;
On Thursday, Olawale’s call was what roused me from sleep. He had found a hospital staffer by the name Tosin Karunwi, who was willing to secure bed space for me, provided we understood that “nothing comes free”. We weren’t sure if Karunwi was a nurse, an orderly or a Crisis official, but we established that she indeed worked at the hospital. Olawale announced that Tosin had demanded N10,000 to help lock down a bed space for me, but he successfully negotiated a N7,000 deal. He asked us to forward the money to Account Name ‘Olaniyi Olawale Matthew’ with Access Bank — because Tosin didn’t want the money sent to her. He passed the money on to Tosin, after she agreed to return it if she didn’t secure a bed space.
To our utmost shock, once she took possession of the money, Tosin began to sell Oshodi to us. Actually, Oshodi, the neuropsychiatric hospital’s annexe, was even worse managed than Yaba. It was graveyard-like, largely abandoned. Oshodi was technically the hospital into which Yaba’s vomits were spilled. But Tosin argued otherwise.”
It was later revealed that one of the orderlies, Mrs Adeniyi requested for #20,000 to buy things needed for his admission into the hospital, but later found out that only #15,000 was used.
Fisayo also narrated how the hospital was infested with big rats and mosquitoes that could cause more outbreak of diseases like malaria and lassa fever, as well as the unpalatable food that patients are served despite paying a high cost for feeding.
He revealed the poor state of the hospital itself, as huge rats roam the wards. He wrote;
A patient announced to me the following day saying ‘Anything you don’t want rats to touch, don’t put it on the floor,’ “Even your Ghana-Must-Go bag. Everything you have should be on your bed!.
In his report, he narrated that other patients revealed that the case of huge rats have been brought to the attention of the Chief Medical Director several times, but she said “there’s nothing wrong with it.”
Quoting a medical doctor at the hospital in the report, the doctor told him;
The centre does not have a well-developed rehabilitation centre as a patient may go for days without seeing a psychologist.
Reacting to the report, the minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, noted that the terrible state of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos will be investigated.
Ehanire made this known via Twitter, on Wednesday saying “This will be looked into immediately.”
This will be looked into immediately https://t.co/UbLQKPsTRm
— Osagie Ehanire (@OsagieEhanire) January 22, 2020
Source: The Cable.
