Innocent Ujah, president of the Nigerian Medical Association
(NMA), says the police should stop harassing medical doctors for treating
patients with gun wounds.
He says there is no law which mandates doctors to demand a
police report before treating victims of gunshots.
His reaction comes on the heels of the bill by Remi Tinubu,
a senator, seeking the amendment of the Compulsory Treatment and Care for
Victims of Gunshot Act 2017.
In 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari signed in the bill
alongside other bills, including the Niger Delta Development Commission
(Establishment) Amendment Act, Federal Capital Territory Water Board
(Establishment) Act, National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment
(Establishment) Act, Anti-Torture Act and Federal Capital Appropriation Act.
Reacting to this development on Sunrise Daily, a Channels
Television programme on Friday, the NMA president said doctors do not need
police reports to treat patients in cases of emergency.
He said though the police do not have any business demanding
reports before doctors can treat patients with gun wounds, they harass doctors
who do.
Ujah advised the government to sensitise the law enforcement
agencies on the roles of health practitioners, saying medical doctors do not
need permission to attend to emergencies.
“As doctors we don’t need police reports in emergency cases
to treat patients. What you need to do is to save the life of the patients,” he
said.
“Unfortunately, the law enforcement agencies in this country
have lost their bearing in terms of control, they have no business asking us to
get police reports before we treat emergency situations.
“The Nigeria police should be educated on the role of the
medical doctor. A medical doctor doesn’t need any permission before he attends
to any emergency. We don’t even ask for fees.”
“You must first get the patient alive before you would think
about fees.
“The reality on the
ground is that when you do that you may be an accomplice; they may accuse you
of hobnobbing or hiding, in cases of armed robbery and the rest.
“That creates fear and uncertainty and insecurity for the
doctors and that’s why some doctors ask for police reports but by and large,
there’s no law that says a doctor must seek a police report before he treats an
emergency.
“I think it is the overzealousness of the police that when
you treat such cases, they might say you’re complicit. So obviously the doctor
is not safe and needs to be protected.
“Doctors have been harassed, some of of them locked up; they
have been killed in the process of saving lives because of the police.”
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