VIOLENCE AGAINST HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS
There is a worrisome increasing trend of reported violence against health providers in hospitals and places of health care delivery in the country. The most recent being the case in University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu, South Eastern Nigeria where agitated relatives unleashed on a doctor that gave their relatives the best available care in the emergency department.
According to eye witnesses, the husband of the patient was being given a progress report by the Emergency Room physician( who was taking care of the wife) on treatment options available to them, when some group of men stormed the room and started beating the doctor in an unprovoked aggression to everyone’s surprise. If not for the responsible display by the people present in the emergency room and the timely response by the hospital management, the situation i am sure would have degenerated.
Causes of these actions are varied and include: poor emotional responses to bad news, belief that the aggressors can get away with assaults especially if they are connected to the elites and political apparatus in a particular locality as is the case with the above case study.
Others are poor communication and understanding by the involved parties, being under the influence of some CNS stimulants like Alcohol and drugs by patients or their relatives in the hospital. Others may include the typical nature of fee for service nature of hospital financing operational in hospitals in the country due to paucity of coverage of the National health insurance system and general insecurity in the country with delayed response time by the security agents.
Violence against health care providers is not limited to Nigeria alone. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 18 and 38% of all health professionals have been on the receiving end of violence and many more have been threatened with violence. Most violence according to the paper are perpetrated by patients and visitors. Categories of health workers most at risk include nurses and other staff directly involved in patient care and emergency room staff .
The consequences of violence against health providers include psychological and emotional trauma for those involved. There is also the potential effect of loss of productivity and subsequent poor quality of care delivered to future patients. The real possibility of conflict especially in unionized institutions between the violence perpetrators and aggrieved fellow workers can also be a consequent event.
Possible ways of minimizing this problem include developing mechanisms for managing potentially difficult relatives and visitors. The need for maintaining a palpable security presence in hospital vicinity should not be overemphasized. Also enlightenment campaign and orientation of general public on this very disturbing issue will also serve to curtail the issue.
