The Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Aro, Abeokuta in Ogun State has once again been rocked by violence as relatives of some patients allegedly attacked a doctor identified as Alexander Onochie, destroying his vehicle parked within the premises.
PUNCH Healthwise gathered that the incident occurred last week Friday.
It was learnt that some patients’ relatives became agitated and expressed their displeasure over the guidelines given by the doctor while attending to them.
This particular attack would be the second happening at the hospital within the space of three days.
PUNCH Healthwise had earlier reported that some patients, on Wednesday, protested against alleged poor treatments the management subjects them to daily.
The protesting patients were said to have attacked and bitten one of the doctors during the crisis, prompting nurses and other doctors to run for their lives.
The protest, which took the entire staff of the health facility by surprise, reportedly lasted for over two hours before police operatives from the Lafenwa Divisional Headquarters intervened and brought the situation under control.
It was, however, gathered that the angry patients’ relatives attacked Onochie for telling them to allow him to attend to patients with more severe cases before minor ones.
This, it was learnt did not go down well with the relatives, who felt the directive was wrong and allegedly attacked the doctor.
Speaking exclusively with PUNCH Healthwise, Onochie, who is a consultant psychiatrist at the hospital, said it took the intervention of the police operatives before he was rescued.
He narrated that he had to run inside his vehicle and lock himself up to avoid being lynched by angry relatives.
The psychiatrist added that when the patient’s relatives could not get to him, they started destroying his car and, at the same time, looking for other means to get him out of the vehicle.
He narrated, “I am one of the consultants in charge of the assessment unit of the hospital. The assessment unit is a place where we see new cases. This is where we attend to people just coming to the facility for the first time.
“At about 2:15 pm on the 17th of May, 2024, I got into the premises and found a number of people waiting for the doctor.“Because resident doctors are on strike, being the consultant, I have the primary responsibility of talking with them. I debriefed and told them that there’s a system that we operate here and it is called triage (a system where patients are attended to based on the severity of their case).
“So, they couldn’t understand why someone who came much earlier would be seen at a later time compared to someone who probably just strolled in a few hours ago.“The patients’ relatives were agitated and demanded to be attended to first. Some of them even resorted to coming to my consulting room to kneel down, begging that they come first. I still explained to them that we operate on a triage basis here. After some time, I called out for the next patient to come and be seen. There was no response. You could imagine people in the waiting area no longer responding.
“So I came out of the consulting room to check and find out why nobody was coming in, only to discover that they had left the building. It was just a few nurses that were remaining.“All the patients and their relatives had left the building. I went outside to still check on them only to receive signals that I should run away. You know, people were giving me signals to run away. I did not know why I should run. There was no problem here. I debrief them so I don’t expect any problem. Others were giving me signs to run into my car. They were giving me this scary sign. Run and grab your steering and move that kind of a sign. And then I quickly entered my vehicle.“They (relatives) came to my vehicle to carry out whatever they planned. They had a ringleader, an older person who stood in front of the vehicle, and the other one went to the side of the vehicle and damaged my side mirror.
“My vehicle took a serious beating on that Friday. They scratched and banged on the vehicle. It was just like 50 people hitting your car at the same time.“I was only protected because I was inside. If there was no such protection, they would have beaten me up. They were angry. This whole thing stems from the fact that doctors have now become punching bags for people.”
He, however, said three suspects were arrested and taken to the Lafenwa Divisional Headquarters, noting that they would be charged in court.
When contacted, the Lafenwa Divisional Police Officer, Enatufe Omoh, said he could not speak on the matter and directed our correspondent to the Police Public Relations Officer in the state.
However, the spokesperson, Omolola Odutola said she was unaware of the incident.
Reacting, the Provost/Medical Director of the Hospital, Dr. Paul Agboola, denied that a doctor was attacked, but confirmed that there was a disagreement between relatives and the consultant.
He said information being circulated about a doctor being bitten by a patient was false and clarified that a patient only attempted to steal a doctor’s vehicle.
Agboola added, “Most of the information that is being circulated in the news is false information. I am the medical doctor of the hospital and I can tell you that no nurse or doctor was injured.
“The one that happened on Wednesday had to do with a non-drug patient that wanted to go home. He attacked a doctor and attempted to steal his vehicle.“In fact, he collected the car key and was driving out before he was apprehended.“No patient attacked a doctor on Friday. What happened was that because of the event that happened on Wednesday, doctors felt they needed to express their pleasure through protest and they went on strike. So, on Friday, few doctors and consultants were working. And there was just a disagreement between a relative and a doctor.
“Patients did not attack anybody on Friday. The suspects have been arrested and they will be charged to court on Monday.“So, when people bring up stories, it is not always true. Many of the things reported in the news were false.“I can categorically say that no patient bites anybody. What was reported was different from what happened. If you want to do a thorough story, you will come in and investigate.”