By Lukman Olabiyi
A non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Crime Victims Foundation of Nigeria (CRIVIFON), has called for the prosecution of hospitals and medical staff found culpable for rejecting gunshot victims.
The group said the call became necessary as a result of increasing spate of deaths of gunshot victims due to refusal of hospitals to treat them without a police report.
In a statement signed by its Executive Director, Mrs. Gloria Egbuji, the foundation described the demand for police report before treatment of gunshot as totally unnecessary because the law has empowered hospitals to commence treatment before filing a police report.
Condemning, in strong terms, the recently reported cases of rejection of gunshot victims by hospitals, which eventually led to their death, the foundation highlighted that doctors and hospitals were breaching the provisions of the law, thereby, exposing themselves to criminal and civil liability.
CRIVIFON has, in the same vein, urged the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Civil Society Organisations and human rights activists to get involved before more Nigerians are lost through such inhuman attitude of medical staff in the nation.