People Living with Sickle Cell Disorder (PLSD) in Anambra state, on Friday protested detention of their members in hospitals across the State over outrageous bills incurred in course of their admission.
The group also issued a two- month ultimatum to the concerned hospitals to immediately discharge the patients or risk their names being published.
Addressing newsmen in Nanka, Orumba North local government area of Anambra State, National Coordinator of the group, Mrs Aisha Edward, described the actions as illegal, inhuman and callous.
She disclosed that no fewer than seven of its members were currently being detained in various hospitals in the state over inability to pay their bills.
“We are giving them from now till December 1 to immediately discharge the patients or we will be forced to publish their names and take up a legal action against them,” she said.
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Edward wondered why a trained medical doctor would not discharge a patient after managing him and wait for payment later.
She said, “I visited a hospital here in Aguata to check on one of our members who was on admission and found out that three of them were being detained against their will due to huge hospital bills they incurred.
“The visit prompted me to probe further and in the process, I discovered that another hospital in Onitsha which has over four of our members who are being detained.
“This are just the few ones we know. But I’m sure there will be many others still being held in other hospitals.
“People have taken undue advantage of people living with sickle cell anaemia for too long, and we will not tolerate this latest discovery.”
Edward revealed that one of the patients (names withheld) who was abandoned by her family, was given a bill to the tune of N1.2million for her treatment.
“The patient told me in confidence that she was told by the hospital management that she was being detained ahead of Christmas period when philanthropists throng the hospitals to clear their debts,” she decried.
The National Coordinator, who refused to disclose the names of the hospitals, regretted that most of the affected hospitals were those owned by the church.
“It is more painful that the hospitals are mission hospitals. The church has been infiltrated by corrupt minded people who now use people’s health condition to defraud other people, and we will not let this happen because the church, not judiciary is the last hope of the common man,” she added.
She further alleged that some of the patients, including orphans, have spent over six months, while the longest serving of them, has been kept in detention for one year and four months, with a strict warning not to escape or face the consequences.
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