By Ebun Sessou

Aggrieved by alleged recurring maternal deaths in Lagos State-owned primary and secondary hospitals, a group of women under the auspices of a non-governmental organisation, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, recently took steps to demonstrate that, as far as they were concerned, enough was enough. This they did by staging a protest to the Lagos State House of Assembly.

The protesters

Led by Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the protesters claimed in their petition addressed to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly and signed by Dr. Abiola, that findings have shown that despite government’s efforts towards the reduction of maternal death in the state, women still experience financial, infrastructural and institutional barriers in accessing adequate maternal healthcare in the state-owned hospitals.

The organisation gave the instance of one Mrs. Omowunmi Shonuga, who they said died with her baby after giving birth at the Rauf/Aregbesola Health Centre in Mosun Okunola Local Council Development Area in Alimosho on October 26, 2015.

According to them, the woman arrived at the hospital, where she had registered for antenatal care, at 5am but met the gates locked and without any medical attention gave birth in the car.

“She was later referred to Igando General Hospital, but encountered delays as no ambulance was available to convey her. On arrival at Igando, no bed space was available for her,” they said, adding that one Mrs. Obinna Nnanna also died at the Lagos State General Hospital, Gbagada after giving birth to triplets on September 23, 2015.

Another instance given by the protesters in the petition was that of Mrs. Oduyoye Folake, who they informed died at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, after she was detained for three months for failure to pay hospital bills.

The NGO stated further that there were also several reports of people being denied access to Lagos hospitals for failure to bring their spouses for compulsory blood donation.

“The attitudes of the medical personnel and absence of the needed resources such as the ambulance and bed spaces are factors that contributed to loss of life.

“The right to life puts an obligation on the state to take measures to safeguard individuals from arbitrary and preventable losses of life and this includes protecting women against the unnecessary loss of life related to pregnancy and childbirth. The acts and omission of the hospitals by their negligence violated the right to life,” they said in the petition.

They maintained that it is the responsibility of the Government to protect citizens against the loss of life and especially for women during child birth, saying that there is a strong obligation to ensure that all the necessary facilities and adequate human and financial resources were available to prevent avoidable loss of lives.

“WARDC hereby proposes that Lagos State House of Assembly calls for a public hearing or independent investigations on the causes of maternal deaths and the contributory factors; we believe that the public hearing will provide an opportunity to hear men and women, who have been affected by the issue in Lagos State,” they stated.

Speaker of the House, Mr. Mudashiru Obasa, in his response, sympathised with the families of the women, who lost their lives during childbirth in the hospitals in the state.

He also commended the protesters for being peaceful despite their grievances and for taking the matter before the state assembly.

The Speaker said that the House could not actually ascertain the incidents stated by the protesters, but that the petition would be treated accordingly.

“We will critically look at the one that happened at Rauf Aregbesola Health Care Centre, but LUTH is not under our jurisdiction. That does not mean that we do not have the right to protect the lives of the people of the state. We will write to the hospital and hear from them too,” he said.

The Speaker then told the protesters that the state has primary health care centres in all the local governments in the state that attend to children and women because the crowd at the general hospitals might make it difficult for many people to be attended to.

He added that there are general hospitals in all the local governments in the state, and that there is hardly any local government in the state, where there is no general hospital.

“We are not saying whether they are free of charge or not, but we have about 57 general hospitals in the state. We recently passed the Health Insurance Law, which will enable indigent people to easily access healthcare. All these we have been doing in the interest of our people,” he said.
Obasa pointed out that the House would continue to care for the residents and that they are concerned about maternal mortality rate, including women health in general, adding that losing a woman means a lot.

He promised that the Assembly would ensure that pregnant women get good healthcare in all the state’s primary healthcare centres and general hospitals.

“If any of our PHC or general hospital is not doing the right thing, get to us because we cannot work without information. It is only when we are well and adequately informed that we can act.

“Those who are there are being paid from tax payers’ money. So, we have to do something about it, which is why we are here. We are representing your interest and we will continue to do that.

“We will look at the petition and invite the necessary people from the concerned hospitals and your representatives so that we can get to the root of the matter and bring maternal mortality to an end,” he said.