By Juliet Jacob
Pregnant Shema’u Sani Labaran about to deliver her baby died at the Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital in Kano State, on account of delay in payment of her hospital bills, a consequence of the new currency transition on in the country.
Husband of the deceased woman, Malam Bello Fancy, lamented the death of his wife as a result of the lack of medical attention lasting more than three hours as a result of phone network failures he experienced while trying to make money transfer to the hospital’s account.
A grieving Malam Fancy told newsmen that he transported his pregnant wife to the medical facility when she was in labour. But unfortunately for the hospital didn’t accept his old naira notes, coupled with the fact that they had no POS. This left him with the only option of making an e-transfer the hospital’s account.
He noted that regardless that the transfer went through and he was debited on his account, the on-call medical staff did not attend to his wife because they insisted they must first check and verify the credit alert in their account.
The process which took no less than three hours. According to Malam Fancy, “My wife walked into the hospital from our house, but before they received the alert, the pains had doubled and she was already bleeding.
“Still, they didn’t touch her until after three hours when they received the alert. After they admitted her, they discovered that she could not deliver by herself, that she must undergo an operation.
“I agreed and paid the money; still through transfer. It also delayed for an additional three hours before they received the alert and operated on my wife. Shockingly, the baby was brought out dead and the mother also died,’ Malam Fancy grieved.
However, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Doctor Rahila Garba, refuted the accusations, affirming that the claim of the complainant did not accurately reflect what actually occurred at the hospital.
Several patients at the hospital have corroborated the report, stating that they also had issues with the payment of bills at the hospital, which reportedly halted any form of service from the medical staff until they confirmed the payment.
