The Lagos State Government has appealed to health care providers, including public and private health facilities operating in the state, to stop rejecting gunshot victims and other trauma patients for want of a police report before commencing treatment.He said, “These deaths would have been avoided if health care providers were conversant with the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017 which stipulates that victims of gunshot and traumatic accidents should receive immediate treatment when presenting to health care facilities.”
The Commissioner said that health care providers were duty-bound to first save lives by offering immediate attention to any patient requiring urgent critical and lifesaving supportive care before other considerations.
“Such critical care should include, where necessary, all measures to stabilise the patient before onward referral to better equipped facilities. Simple procedures, such as attempts to arrest bleeding or intravenous fluids could make all the difference to saving a life”, Abayomi said.
The commissioner added that the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act makes provisions for obligatory treatment and care for victims of gunshots stressing that the law requires that a person with a gunshot, wound should be received for immediate and adequate treatment by any hospital in Nigeria.
“With this Act, it has become legally wrong for health care providers to delay attending to victims of gunshots and any other trauma under any circumstances. It is in this wise that I want to make it clear that the Lagos State Government will not hesitate to explore this law and to apply suitable sanctions against facilities that contravene the principle and body of the act,” he said.
source: Punch
