The Lagos State Police Command on Wednesday described the alleged refusal of Reddington Hospital in Ikeja to treat a gunshot victim as cruel, warning hospitals and doctors to henceforth desist from rejecting gunshot victims.
It said such act constitutes a flagrant violation of an existing law.
Reacting to a media report on the refusal of a hospital to treat a victim who was fatally shot by armed robbers, the police said it must be noted that doctors who do so are criminally liable on account of the provision of the Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims Of Gunshot Act, 2017.
In a statement by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Chike Oti, the police said it would henceforth arrest and prosecute any medical practitioner who rejects gunshot victims on the ground of police report.
“The attention of the Nigeria Police, Lagos State Command, has been drawn to the Punch Newspapers publication of Monday, May 14, 2018, captioned ” Hospital rejects victim over bullet injuries.”
“The story goes that one Engr. Adebayo Akinwunmi, a senior engineer with an Information and Communications Technology company, was shot and wounded by armed robbers in his house at Ofada-Mokoloki, Ogun state and was brought to Reddington Hospital, Ikeja for treatment only to be refused admission on the unlawful and inexcusable grounds that there was no police report.
“The Command considers the action of the hospital as cruel; perhaps, an indication that the hospital management may be ignorant of the “Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017,” Oti said.
He said the Act demands that every hospital in Nigeria whether public or private ‘shall accept or receive for immediate and adequate treatment with or without police clearance any person with gunshot wounds.’