LAGOS JULY 1ST (URHOBOTODAY)-People seeking medicare living within Ughelli and environs have aban¬doned the state govern¬ment-owned Mariere Me¬morial Hospital Ughelli, Delta State, over fear of contracting the dreaded Covid-19 virus in its prem¬ises or being tagged as pa¬tients of the virus when visited.
Daily Independent gath¬ered that the situation got worse when news filtered around town that, four doctors working in Mari¬ere Memorial Hospital have contracted the virus and were asked to go for self-isolation for 14 days.
Also, there is that fear among residents that common fever ailment or patients with cough could be labelled as a suspected Covid-19 patient.
This development has made sick patients to re¬sort to self medication.
Our reporter also gath¬ered that the shutting down of some of the major wards in the government hospital due to lack of medical ex¬perts to take care of the pa¬tients on admission further sent wrong signal among the Ughelli North Local Government residents that the hospital was complete¬ly shutdown.
A medical doctor, who plead anonymity spoke with Daily Independent, said the hospital gate is wide open and it still runs 24 hours operations.
However, he acknowl¬edged that there was gross reduction in turnout of out-patients to the hospital, saying the hospital treats every patient as they come.
Daily Independent