By Rauf Oyewole
Bauchi State Government in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation, Better Life Restoration Initiative (BERI) have expressed concerns over discrimination and stigmatisation of patients who seek medical treatment from hospitals.
The Zonal Director of Primary Health Care, Bauchi North, Jibrin Muhammed Inuwa, while speaking at a three-day training for health workers on ‘Stigma-free, Non-Discriminatory and Quality Health Care Service Delivery’ organised by BERI in Azare on Wednesday, expressed dismay over the attitude of caregivers at health facilities which he described as discriminatory and stigmatising and deprived patients of the medical rights.
According to him, “We cannot end HIV, Tuberculosis (TB) and malaria as epidemics without prioritizing gender equality. Gender norms, roles and relationships influence health in multiple ways: they contribute to risk-taking behaviour, amplify vulnerabilities, impact access to health services and affect decision-making power within relationships and over health.
“Gender is relevant for everyone's health, but women, girls and gender-diverse communities) in particular experience significant health disparities due to gender inequality, discrimination, violence and gender-related barriers in accessing health services,” he said.
Inuwa shared the experience of a patient who “preferred death to seeking medical care at a particular hospital. When we asked her, ‘why didn't you like to go to the hospital, she preferred death to going to the particular PHC’, just because of the discrimination and stigmatisation by the health workers, the woman later died,” he said.
Inuwa warned health against discriminatory words and unfriendly attitude towards the patients, saying that they were employed mainly to provide quality health care services. He urged the practitioners to keep patients’ history highly confidential.
The Executive Director of BERI, Nkem Ogbonna while speaking said that the training became necessary to curb the spread of avoidable diseases like HIV and Tuberculosis among adolescents and women.
According to him, sex workers and HIV patients are a key population, and to attempt to tame the spread, they must be brought to a roundtable to educate them on the danger.
He said that the Initiative with the support from The Global Fund has identified 600 women and adolescents who are mostly sex workers and drug addicts for rehabilitation and training for empowerment skills and starter packs after their training.
The programme, according to Nkem, would run for three years in Misau and Shira local government areas of Bauchi State.
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