Tens of psychiatric patients at Neuro – Psychiatric Hospital Aro Abeokuta broke loose on Wednesday, May 15 and attacked a psychiatric doctor, inflicting him with multiple bites.
The psychiatrist whose identity is yet to be established alongside three other psychiatric nurses escaped death narrowly when the enraged patients descended on them in protest over alleged poor feeding at the federal government – owned specialist health facility.
The action of the riotous patients took the hospital staff by surprise and for about two hours, there was apprehension with some of the staffers trying to hide in safe places before the police operatives from the Lafenwa Divisional Headquarters came to restore normalcy .
The Daily Crucible gathered that the patients were protesting poor feeding, poor sanitary system, as well as absence of alternative electricity each time there was power outage from a Disco in charge of the area.
Some relatives of the patients on admission said the matter has been ongoing for a while before some of the patients resorted to protesting the situation even when it became obvious that management of the health facility would not remedy the situation.
A female relative of one of the patients on admission said the least amount being paid by a patient ranged from N500, 000 to N700, 000 depending on the length of their stay at the facility.
Reacting, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the facility, Ajibola dismissed it as “just an internal affairs” that has been redressed and did not worth being reported as news.
But speaking with after securing the approval of the command’s Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu, the Lafenwa Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Enatufe Omoh said only one of the psychiatric doctor was assaulted, as he sustained varying degrees of teeth bites from the protesting on-admission-patients.
Enatufe, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), stated further that the protesters had disagreements with their handlers at the health facility having been denied some privileges, which included seeing their relations who would take them home after being discharged from the hospital, as well as not being allowed to freely move around.
If they could organize themselves to protest, some of them are thinking tactically then, and there should be change in management and operational strategies of the facilities.
So you think mental patients don’t think tactically? Having a Psychiatric problem doesn’t mean crass stupidity. Please be educated.
Poor feeding is a predisposing factor of chaos in a mental health facility,due to fact that the medications increases their cravings for food.moreso the fact that their is a restriction in movements facilitates health workers to be vulnerable to violence and aggressive behavior from mental health patients
In conclusion ,in any mental health facility to avoid occurrence such as this thus there should be an effective and efficient management that promotes and improve the welfare of the patient in their care