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FMC Bauchi Forces Staff To Attend To Suspected COVID-19 Patients Without Protective Equipment, Workers Express Fear

The hospital has also threatened to sack workers, who disclose their working conditions during the Coronavirus pandemic to members of the public.

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Medical workers at the Federal Medical Center, Azare, Bauchi State, are presently in fear as they are being forced by the management of the health institution to attend to suspected COVID-19 patients without protective equipment.

The hospital has also threatened to sack workers, who disclose their working conditions during the Coronavirus pandemic to members of the public.

SaharaReporters gathered that two healthcare workers at the facility recently died after exposure to Lassa fever patients at the hospital yet the management has refused to take any genuine steps at protecting staff.

It was gathered that most of the medical worker are turned away by management of the hospital whenever they request for personal protective equipment to attend to patients.

“Staff are apprehensive now that a COVID-19 isolation centre has been set up at the hospital. 

“They know they won’t get PPE as usual and the management wants them to be mute.

“FMC Azare staff are asking the Federal Government for help, they’re not afraid to treat COVID-19 patients but they want PPE, they want protection,” a source in the know told SaharaReporters.

To further highlight how the management of the hospital is desperately shrouding everything in secrecy, a memo signed by its Public Relations Officer, Abdu Mohammed, and seen by SaharaReporters banned all staff from speaking about COVID-19.

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“I am directed to caution all staff of the centre that with the recent outbreak of Coronavirus, no staff is permitted to speak on groups like Facebook, WhatsApp or any means of passing information.

“Therefore, any member of staff that goes beyond his limit will have himself to blame as management will not take it lightly,” part of the memo read.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Bauchi State presently has six cases of Coronavirus while three patients had been discharged. 

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PUBLIC HEALTH