The Management, National Hospital Abuja (NHA), has denied allegations that its nurses protested over lack of protective equipment after a suspected COVID-19 patient was rushed to its intensive care unit.
Dr Tayo Haastrup, hospital’s spokesperson made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
“The allegation is, to say the least, false and malicious and is completely unfair to management and staff of the hospital, who are doing everything to contribute to the management and control of the current COVID-19 pandemic.”
According to him, the hospital is one of the tertiary health facilities in the FCT that has been designated as Treatment Centre for COVID-19 patient by the Federal Ministry of Health.
He said that therefore the hospital had all the facilities on the ground to attend to cases related to the pandemic.
“Since March 2020, some patients diagnosed with COVID-19 have been transferred to the hospital, admitted and some have been successfully treated at the Isolation Unit and discharged.
“The Federal Ministry of Health, through the NCDC and the FCTA has provided us the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) needed for the management of these patients.
“We have followed the approved protocol for the management of these patients,” he said.
Haastrup said that all the units in the hospital were given the required PPEs for the level of work they were engaged in and could restock from the Director of Clinical Services as the need arose.
He said that none of the patients admitted for emergency care for other illnesses or conditions had tested positive for COVID-19.
He said that the hospital had earlier sensitized and trained its staff on prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, adding that several volunteer staff as part of this capacity building that was facilitated by professionals and staff of NCDC.
