Management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Edo State, has ‘detained’ a 59-year-old woman, Mrs. Josephine Nwokolo, for her inability to settle her N600,000 bill. Unfortunately, Nwokolo, an employee of the Edo State Waste Management Board, was on duty when she was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver. Her waist and leg were broken in the accident. She is currently being detained at the female Orthopaedic Ward of the hospital. However, yesterday, Nwokolo cried out to the state government, individuals and organisations to come to her aid to enable her to offset her medical bills and be released by UBTH.
The woman, who lamented her plight in an interview with our correspondent on her hospital bed at the UBTH, said she was by a hit-and-run driver on Sapele Road on November 17 last year. Nwokolo said she was employed by the state Waste Management Board as a street sweeper and was sweeping on the busy Sapele Road about 5.30a.m., near NITEL Junction, when a truck hit her and flung her to the other lane of the dual carriage way. She said: “I was sweeping Sapele Road when a vehicle hit me and threw me to the other side of the road. I didn’t know how my son brought me to this hospital.
My husband, Peter, who is a wheelbarrow pusher, has been paying all medical bills.” Her eldest son, Chukwuka, who had assisted her to sweep the other end of the road when the ugly incident occurred, took her to two different hospitals with the assistance of other sympathisers. She was later referred to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the UBTH. Nwokolo explained that her monthly salary was N18,000. She therefore begged the state government and others to assist her as she could not pay the over N600,000 incurred as medical bills. The woman said she wanted to reunit with her children and other members of her family.
Nwokolo claimed that her employers still owe her three months’ salary arrears. Reacting to the story, the UBTH Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Joshua Uwaila, said like any other person admitted by the hospital, Nwokolo was expected to pay her bills as a patient treated by the hospital. Besides, he noted that where she was unable to pay, she should get the attention of her employer to pay the bills in line with the law since she was still working for her organisation as at the time of the accident. He said: “People should show us some reciprocity for services rendered to them before asking for such gesture.
We are having so many issues like this. We know that things are hard, even for us as an organisation we can’t continue to sustain the tempo.” When contacted on the phone, the Acting Chairman of the state Waste Management Agency, Mr. Akonofua Aiyamenkhue, said the agency was aware of Nwokolo’s plight in the hospital. However, Aiyamenkhue said that Nwokolo and others were employed by the ‘waste manager’ and that the sweepers were not working directly with the board.
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