UITH suspends senior consultant over misconduct …Act unethical, NMA reacts

…Quarantine 28 medical staff that had contact with death COVID-19 patient

Alarmed by conduct of one of its staff in mismanaging the case of a coronavirus patient, which led to his death, the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, UITH, has suspended one of its staff, Prof Alakija Salami for unethical conduct.

UITH also placed 28 medical staff that had contact with the deceased patient on self-isolation.

Chief Medical Director, CMD, of the hospital Prof Abdullah Yusuf, who spoke in Ilorin, Kwara State, while speaking with journalists, said that management had ordered the immediate suspension of one Prof Salami for alleged unethical conduct.

He said: “The institution said it is also working with the Kwara State government Technical Committee on COVID-19 to contact-trace all that attended

“Already, all UITH staff with close contact with the deceased patient on the night of his admission, or his corpse has been ordered to proceed on self isolation. Besides, the ‘A and E’ ward and the ambulance.” On the suspension of Prof Salami, UITH in a statement by its Director of Administration, Dr David Oadibo, said “this is as a result of his unethical conduct in the admission, management and eventual release of the corpse of a suspected COVID -19 patient who died in the hospital on April 3, 2020.”

Earlier, UITH had in a letter with Ref no UITHMB/DA/PER/86/1/232 dated April 6, 2020, by Odaibo, set up a 10 man Committee under the Chairmanship of Professor E. Afolayan to among others, investigate the allegations of the COVID-19 suspected case that died recently on April 3, 2020 that was brought in, by a member of staff, Professor Salami.

Salami had claimed in his report at the hospital that the victim, a Chartered Accountant Alhaji Jimoh Muideen, who recently returned from United Kingdom, for one of his children’s graduation ceremony, suffered from food poisoning.

However, it was later gathered that that the deceased was on self- isolation since his return and that Salami brought him to the hospital after his case degenerated before his death the following day.

… NMA reacts

In a reaction to the incident in a telephone chat with NAIJA LIVE TV in Lagos, the President of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Dr Francis Faduyile, who described the incident as unethical, said the UITH management had already set up a panel to investigate Salami’s actions, noting that the NMA can only act after the report of the institution’s panel proves him guilty.

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