They went to the state House of Assembly and Government House to register their grievances.
Speaking to journalists, one of the women who gave her name as Evelyn, said she and her colleagues registered for ante-natal care for the past two months but could not see a doctor.
She said the hospital staff told them that they had no equipment to conduct test and as such, doctors could not make any diagnosis.
“For two months since we registered, we could not do anything. They said there is no equipment to conduct test. The doctors cannot make diagnosis without test. Even ultra scan, we cannot do it. That is why we are in the street protesting,”Evelyn said.
Corroborating Evelyn’s allegations, another expectant woman, Rabi Yusuf, said she and others were not allowed to register for ante-natal care at the hospital for the past two months as they were told that there were, ‘no equipment to register.’
At the Government House, Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Idehenre told the protesters that their message would be conveyed to Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
However, a staff at the ante-natal unit of the Central Hospital, Benin, who spoke on condition of anonymity said yesterday, that the hospital had registered over 100 pregnant women for ante-natal care for the week but revealed that staffers at the unit were not enough to cater for the increasing number of expectant women that patronise the hospital.
It was gathered that a recent government policy requiring all hospitals to pay their internally generated revenue into government’s coffers from where running costs would be disbursed to them, has adversely affected operations of many hospitals in the state.
For example, medical tests for malaria, typhoid and other illnesses are currently conducted outside the hospital by patients wishing to see doctors at the hospital.
A management staff at the Benin Central Hospital said that out of the money disbursed to 36 hospitals across the state as running costs, the Central Hospital got N200,000 only.
“Before now, we used to spend our earnings on running cost and it was okay but they asked us to pay into the state governments account. How can they give us N200,000 as running cost? This hospital is down and nothing is working,” the source said.
But according to Government sources, the hospitals’ finances were streamlined to stop leakages because the hospitals’ management claimed to spend everything they earned.
Reacting to the protest, the state Commissioner for Health, Heregie Aihanuwa said the government was working toward resolving all issues at the Central hospital.
