Trouble started when a group of persons believed to be relations of the patient demanded to see him but being under closed supervision they were requested to wait for a while. Eye witness at the scene of the incident said the men in their middle-ages decided to rush into the theatre room but were turned back immediately. They therefore became worried and angry and started beating the senior medical officer on duty.

Narrating his ordeal in the hands of those unidentified persons, M. Garba Kura, the officer who was attached, stated that those who came to the Hospital to see their patient refused to listen to his explanation, rather, they ran out of patience and started insulting him and later resorted to beating.

Confirming the incidence to newsmen, the Medical Officer-in-charge of the Hospital, Dr Mansor Sovon Dinki condemned the action of those people pointing out that the hospital is not a place that could be turned into a market place.

He alleged that the room they entered was a Maternity Ward where married women were waiting to give birth as a result of which a lot of them were half naked. “They were asked to exercise patience as their patient would be treated and they would see him, but the resorted to violence” he said.

He revealed that they have been experiencing these “Barbaric treatments from members of the public at the Hospital” and called on both parties, the out-patients or relations and Hospital staff to always try as much as possible to control their temper in order to avoid fracas.

Reliable source at the Hospital said this was not the first time people who bring their patients to the Hospital were harassing or intimidating the staff.

Our sources advised the Kano State Hospital Management to request for the assistance of Security men such as Police or Hisbah Officers to be on the guards at such important places as people are now behaving like “animals.”

Murtala Muhammad Hospital being one of the largest and oldest Hospital in Nigeria is handling the cases of Thousands of admitted and out-patients on daily basis.

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