Another Painful Meaningless Loss at BMH

Rivers state has recorded yet another painful meaningless loss at Braitwait Memorial Specialist Hospital popularly called BMH. The hospital became the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital in 2018 following the establishment of the College of Medical Sciences in the Rivers State University.  BMH is in Old GRA, government owned, operated by the Rivers State Hospital Management Board.  It is one of the largest hospitals in South-South with almost a 1000 medical staff and hundreds of licensed beds yet the people are afflicted over the inefficiency of the hospital.

Over the years, people have lamented and pleaded with the government to improve the health care facility in the hospital as it is government owned. Hundreds of lives have been lost in the hospital for no reason. About 60 percent of families have recounted how they have lost a loved one or two to the waiting hands of death because the staff are reluctant due to the fact that they are not well paid or facilities and equipment are in short supply or bad conditions.

Rivers State laments again on February 5, 2022 as an illustrious son who is a father was left to die in BMH. Michael Agolia, a prominent event manager, the CEO of plughouse, Port Harcourt was returning from a wedding on sea when his boat capsized, he was rescued and rushed to BMH but received negligence, the medical staff refused to attend to him urgently, he was further rushed to Save a Life Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. If BMH were to be competent, there wouldn’t have been a need to exit the hospital. Some persons commented on how they witnessed the young man struggle with his life for hours as his family made everything ready for him to be treated yet the medical staff could not handle the situation properly.

The city of Port Harcourt is red with tears and a lot of persons took to the social media to express their aversion for BMH, UPTH inclusive. How the staff pay less attention to the value of human lives because they are being paid by government. Many call BMH, “a death trap” “a killer den” “a mortuary” because of these recurring fatal incidents. Any person heading to BMH for an emergency is heading towards death.

Residents of Port Harcourt have labeled BMH completely wrong for medical help except the person is going for a very mild case and has got enough time to waste or the hospital can be managed to be used for medical excursion by primary and secondary schools.

A hospital that cannot save lives in urgent times should be closed forever or improved now!