JUTH ‘ll never discriminate in service delivery – CMD

By Blessing Odega

The acting Chief Medical Director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Dr Pokop Bupwatda, has said that the hospital had never discriminated against any patient in the delivery of its services.

“There is no form of discrimination on the basis of tribe, religion or state of origin in this hospital. We have never done that and will never do that here,” Bupwatda told newsmen on Saturday in Jos.

Bupwatda was reacting to a video suggesting that it was discriminating against a section of the population.

A newspaper on Saturday wrote a story on the said video, long after the hospital authorities dismissed the claims.

The CMD, while debunking the impression the short sought to create, stated that the hospital was a federal health institution and therefore a common wealth to all Nigerians.

He further disclosed that as professional physicians, who hold sacred their hippocratic oaths, no human being in JUTH is denied access to health care or discriminated against.

“The content of the video doesn’t in any way represent the policy of the federal government or the federal ministry of health whose JUTH is.

He said the staff involved in the video was not a health record staff and doesn’t have the mandate to speak the way she did.

He revealed that the staff had been reprimanded.

He debunked the claims made by the health staff in the video insinuating that once the patients fill in a wrong data as regards their state of origin or Local Government Area, the system would shut down.

According to him, the tertiary health institution is saddled with three core responsibilities of delivering clinical services, training and education, and research.

He pointed out that for the purpose of research, data is required and that is why data are collected.

”Such data is for research and health surveillance and not for discriminatory purposes,” he stated.

Bupwatda assured the public that the hospital would never discriminate against anyone.

“Patients should feel free to come for attention. Anyone that feels discriminated against should report to the management of JUTH.

“If we investigate and found anyone culpable, we shall carry out appropriate measures,” he said. (NAN)