By Hassan Zaggi
The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has advised Nigerians to support medical experts who are working hard, especially, in sophisticated medical fields in an effort to save the country from foreign capital flight.
The NMA Chairman, Abuja, Chapter, Dr. Charles Igwanyi, gave the advice in Abuja, on Monday, at a media briefing organized to give Alliance Hospital the opportunity to explain its own side of the story on the alleged organ harvest published in a daily newspaper in Abuja.
He charged Nigerians not to take laws into their hands whenever there is an issue but that due process should be followed to resolve it.
Dr. Ugwanyi stressed that: “Alliance Hospital has pushed organ transplant to a very high standard has been in the eye of the storm. It is our duty as medical association to take interest in the allegations.
“Whereas we appreciate the fact that some of our hospitals in Nigeria are providing high end services, especially, kidney transplant that has caused the country so much money in terms of foreign capital flight out of the country, on the other hand, we are also worried about the ethical standard in performing these high end operations.
“We are assuring Nigerians that our duty as Doctors under the Hippocratic Code is to make sure we protect the right and dignity of all patients even after death.
“On that note, we have taught it wise to interrogate the management of Alliance Hospital, although they have given us some explanations but it is important that we bring them to come and explain to the media what has been going on.
“At this point, it is important we note that in any situation there are due processes and such matters are probably not best addressed in the media.”
The NMA Chairman further stressed that: “I want to make it very clear that the NMA and its organs of administration are neither for or against Alliance Hospital. Our duty in this instance is to create a platform whereby the accused has an opportunity to say something on an allegation that has gone viral.
“NMA will never at any point in time, encourage negligence of duty or malpractice. We have internal mechanism to check our practice. Don’t take laws into your hands.
“Some publications can be very misleading, they can be one sided. We want a situation where any potential case is given a balanced judgement.”
Speaking, the Medical Director of Alliance Hospital, Dr. Christopher Otabor, called on the National Assembly to revisit the laws governing organ transplant in Nigeria in order to make it strong.
He insisted that Alliance Hospital has nothing to do with illegal organ harvest and that it does not contaplate to engage in that.
“We call on the National Assembly to rise up to this responsibility to look at the laws governing organ transplant in Nigeria.
“Although organ transplant is a baby discipline in Nigeria, we have not grown that much, but this is the time they should begin to look at modifying the law to make it difficult for challatans to transact in the illegal organ deal behind the scene.”
He explained that the procedure for kidney transplant in Alliance Hospital include: “As a rule, kidney recipients source for their donors and present them to the hospital for screening for compatibility and fitness for donation.
After the screening, we proceed to ensure they meet the legal requirements which include that the donor must be 18 years or above; donor must sign consent in the presence of two adult witnesses; donor is expected to swear an affidavit stating their age, and affirming that the decision to donate is by free will and there is no compulsion or financial inducement and the relationship of the donor to the recipient.”
While saying that the publication by Daily Trust was a deliberate attempt to malign the hospital, Dr. Otabor, however, explained that: “The Daily Trust reporter Lami Sadiq visited the hospital and spoke with the medical director on the case in question. She was given all the facts.
“A few days later specifically on August 19, 2023, the first headline publication on the story debuted. The story was vindictive, biased and an obvious vendetta against the hospital. The second publication of 10th December is in line with the first and it is a peddler of half truth.
“While we appreciate the need for investigative journalism to get to the root of societal problems, we must state here categorically that the daily trust report is a calculated attempt to malign the hospital having disregarded the facts presented to them. They chose whose story to believe.
“From the report, it is obvious that there is an organ market out there which Alliance hospital is not part of and can never condescend to transact in.
“The writer of the article obviously took a position against the hospital, pronounced a guilty verdict on it and called for punishment for the hospital without due regards to the facts.
“I encourage other media houses with genuine intentions to dig deep to unravel the key players in this trade. Alliance hospital has nothing to do with illegal organ harvesting.”
