Ill-equipped Anambra neuropsychiatric hospital leaves staff, patients frustrated

By Abigail Mbah 

On 26 September when this reporter visited the psychiatric hospital in Nawfia, Anambra State, she was met with the ugly sight of a patient Being flogged for insisting on playing with a plate.

One of the caregivers who participated in the beating, Obundah Goddey, said this measure was to prevent the patients from jumping the fence to escape, a habit the hospital had experienced in the past.

“We cannot be able to hold the patients down for too long without some drama.  We have had situations where they jump fences to escape, so seeing that there’s not enough security staff, we resolved to chaining them”, he said.

The hospital personnel who spoke to this reporter unanimously agreed that the hospital is understaffed and under equipped, hence, forcing them to adopt such measures which is not a standard practice worldwide 

Meanwhile, the state government had budgeted several millions to erect and equip a new psychiatric hospital in Nawfia, this project would have ensured that patients would have better care.

State document obtained from Budgetpedia, shows that the project is recurrent in the years with N32,860,850; N50,000,000; N24,379,694 released in 2016, 2017 and 2020 respectively.

HISTORY OF NAWFIA NEUROPSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL 

The neuropsychiatric hospital was established in Nawfia in 1991, following the creation of Anambra State.

The inception location granted by the community consisted of a bungalow of four rooms which served as male ward, female ward, doctor’s consulting room and nurses room.

This pioneering work was conducted by two consulting doctors, Jeremiah Ubaka and Ikechukwu Nebeuwa, ten psychiatric nurses headed by matron Mabel Nwabude and seconded by Chief Nursing Officer, Mrs Uzoamaka Izuakor.

In 1996, Innerwheel Club,  the women’s wing of the Rotary Club, donated water tanks to the hospital. 

The year 2001 had the Rotary Club as part of the Community Development Project build four additional rooms for the hospital under the supervision of Dr J. Ubaka.

In 2003, the strength of workers increased to 33 in number. The hospital continued to grow till the State government conceived the idea of using the hospital as a centre for basic nurses in general training for their psychiatric experience in 2004.

A block of male and female wards was constructed for the hospital through the Millennium Goals Project during the tenure of the then President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan in 2008.
The last building in the premises is Amaudo Etumbuzo’s a two storey building was constructed in 2010 which now serves as hostels for student nurses. It was donated by Methodist Church of Christ Nigeria.

Amaudo Etumbuzo is the name they called the project that was done by the Methodist Church.

THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL NAWFIA

The psychiatric hospital is located in Nawfia, in the outskirts of Njikoka, a local government area in Anambra state.

On getting  into the hospital, the reporter was greeted with the presence of  a man seated on the floor with wrappers around his waist.

The patients were seen lying on bare floors with mats and wrappers as a support. A small bungalow accommodates both the male and the female patients although demarcated by a passageway. The bungalow has two halls demarcated by a passageway. One hall for male patients and the other for females.

This reporter observed that for the two days visit by UDEME there were no trained psychiatric doctors seen around the hospital. Apart from the administrative personnel in the hospital only three caregivers reported to work daily. 

Josephine Nzeakor, the Chief Nursing Officer in the hospital told this reporter that they have only one professional psychiatrist that comes for consultation once a week.

“More professional psychiatrists are needed in the hospital. We have just one professional psychiatrist that comes once a week for consultations,” she said.

The former Deputy Director of the hospital Ekwunife told UDEME that in 2015, a nurse slumped during work hours as a result of working multiple hours due to the limited number of medical personnel around. But the nurse spent a few days in the hospital until she became better but was not seen anywhere around the hospital again.

Additionally, Mrs Ekwunife Augustina said: “After several years of budgeting for this project, no building has been erected in this place by the government. Before my retirement in 2015 as the HOD of nursing, I made attempts by going to the then Commissioner’s office to know the whereabouts of the money always budgeted but my efforts were fruitless.”

Juliana Madu, the Deputy Director in the neuropsychiatric hospital beckoned on the government to take actions to resuscitate the hospital.

“There’s much stress, people are getting mentally stressed. We have patients flooded everywhere but no sophisticated equipment to attend to them all. The government should do the needful “.

REASONS FOR MORE STRUCTURES

Enumerating the various reasons for more structures, Mrs Nzeakor said a better structure would help daily activity of the hospital and medical professionals 

“The cause of mental illness differs, it is idiopathic. So enough infrastructure is needed so we can separate those with substance abuse cases from those with non substance related cases”. She said looking at the half baked equipments littered in her office and continued 

“The General hospital Enugwu Ukwu rendered help by giving us 10 beds in the hospital, yet it is not enough“, she said.

Francis Okoye, an elderly in the community informed UDEME that the community generously donated hectares of land to the government for the purpose of this expansion, but nothing has been done

“ Nawfia community donated land to the government along Nawfia express road for the expansion of the hospital but they have done nothing there”, he said.

Mrs Uju Okoye, a staff in the administration office in the Ministry  of Health said the release of information about the project is strictly by the commissioner’s order.

Another staff at the Ministry of Health who pleaded for anonymity as they were not authorized to speak on the matter told UDEME  that no money has been released to the ministry for the commencement of the project. However, this contradicts what was written in the state document.

“No money was released to the ministry for the project. Also there was proper handover of the land donated by the Nawfia community to the government “, the anonymous source added.

This reporter attempted twice to meet with the commissioner of health but was not granted an audience. However, an FOI has been sent to the ministry demanding the total release of money for the project and reason for the delay in commencement was not responded to as of the time of filing this report.