FOLASHADE ADEBAYO’s visit to the hospital housing the Isolation Unit for Ebola treatment in Lagos reveals discontent among workers who have no access to the fat money that attendants earn daily
The darkening skies had announced its intentions long before it pelted the city with rain last Friday. It quickly soaked people and buildings, including those of the Mainland Hospital, also known as the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, Lagos.
The downpour washed over the old cottage wards and nondescript administrative offices, forcing health workers to helplessly look at the sky. With each respite from the torrents, doctors, nurses and attendants dashed from one part of the hospital to another, busy with the business of the day.
The Mainland Hospital is tucked away near the rear end of the Mainland Hospital Drive. For tuberculosis and measles patients as well as others living with HIV/AIDS, the IDH is a familiar place. The old-model and drab bungalow wards, the crunchy sound of shoes on the gravel- paved roads and the presence of staff with handkerchiefs permanently tied to their noses were the sights and sound of the hospital.
With its location and bias, the hospital became a perfect choice by the state government for city residents infected with the Ebola Virus Disease. Until the first set of patients arrived at the IDH, members of staff knew the boundary and service delivery was routine. But the EVD, an unfolding disease with at least five known strains, has changed the status quo.
Our correspondent, however, learnt that the initial adrenaline of fear has been replaced with frenzy for the money paid daily to volunteers who work at the Isolation Unit of the hospital. It was also gathered that the “juicy” reward has generated discontent among the attendants who were not selected to share in the “national cake”.
The attendants, reportedly selected by the state’s Director of Infectious Diseases, simply identified as Dr. Abdulsalam, are “fencing” volunteers interested in rendering assistance at the Isolation Unit, preferring to keep the number compact and the roster predictable.
Working at the unit is not a tea party. The risk of infection, even with the highest deployment of caution, is real. Medical care for Ebola patients requires round-the-clock attention and monitoring and available facts have shown that health workers and family members of patients have a high risk of infection.
This much is known to the workers at the IDH. Aside from a comprehensive health care package and a monthly salary, as our correspondent gathered, while doctors earn N100,000 daily for working at the unit, nurses and attendants are daily paid N70,000 and N30,000 hazard allowance respectively. In a country where the minimum monthly wage is N18,000, the prospect of earning almost double the minimum monthly wage almost on a daily basis appears to have crushed the associated risk.
While the state government is still keeping the expenses it had incurred so far to its chest, the Federal Government announced a N200 million fund to augment its resources in the management the EVD. The sum, according to a statement by the Special Adviser to the Minister for Health on Media and Communications, Mr. Dan Nwomeh, is separate from the N1.9billion released to the Ministry of Health.
The private sector has also not been watching from the sidelines. The Aliko Dangote Foundation aided with a donation of N152m to sponsor the Ebola Emergency Operation Centre in Lagos while Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited also donated an ambulance to the centre.
One of the attendants who is not among those selected to work at the Isolation Unit, spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity. Expressing bitterness at the development, the attendant complained of the additional workload created by the exodus of some of the workers to the Ebola centre.
“There is only one patient left. Yet you see them still flocking to the place. They bring all sorts of people here saying that they are contacts of Patrick Sawyer. But it is all a ruse to share in the national cake given by the Federal Government. The workers don’t want more volunteers just because they want the money to themselves only.
“I don’t blame them but our boss who is in charge. Now the rest of us combine our shifts with the shifts of the attendants who are with the Ebola patients,’’ the source said.
Another member of staff, who also craved anonymity, argued that considering the high risk of infection, compensation and hazard allowance should be paid to every member of staff.
“We are all at risk here. It does not make sense that some people are earning so much daily while we are left with nothing. We are even planning to go on strike. We breathe the same air here with the Ebola patients. If anyone of the workers there gets infected by mistake, the person can spread the virus before you know what is happening. So, why should we be left out of the hazard allowance?’’, queried the member of staff.
Following the death of the first Nigerian Ebola patient, health workers at the IDH reportedly fled from the hospital out of fear. In an interview, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, confirmed the development.
‘Because of the fear of Ebola, everybody seems to be scared, nobody wants to assist, which is a major challenge. It is even more so for the treatment isolation ward. It is a major problem because a lot of people ran away, especially when the nurse died,’’ he had said.
But with the enhanced hazard allowance, sources at the hospital said, the attendants were no longer reluctant. Repeated calls and message sent to the mobile phone of the Medical Director, Dr. Wasiu Gbadamosi, to confirm the allegations were not acknowledged as of 6pm on Monday. When our correspondent called Idris, he said he was in a meeting. Messages sent to his line thereafter were also not replied to.
For some other workers however, streaks of fear still hover in the air. Tell anyone in the hospital that you are going to the Isolation Unit and you are literally begged to be careful. Through your eyes, they look into your soul, squeezing out a promise that you will not touch anything while at the centre.
The unit, cordoned off by fat planks of wood, hibernates at the rear end of the hospital. It faces the first Isolation Unit of the hospital, a drab bungalow where the Ebola patients whee first admitted before they were moved into the present bigger ward. The old Isolation Unit, now covered with weeds, is also cordoned off with a slim red tape. Three emergency services ambulances and two white Hilux vehicles were parked in front of the building.
When our correspondent visited the Isolation Unit on Friday, about four female attendants in lilac uniform sat in front of the building beside some fumigation equipment. They had neither a protective suit on their bodies nor handkerchiefs around their faces. The new isolation unit has two sections – the main section where the patients are kept and a smaller section with a waiting area. Here, Dr. Abdulsalam declined speaking with our correspondent.
“I cannot talk with you. I am a civil servant. You need to obtain permission from the committee in charge of the media before I can grant any interview,’’ he said.
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