General Hospitals in Nigerian are meant to cater for low income families, with the aim of providing free or affordable treatment for their patients.
However, they are also known to be one of the most well equipped hospitals in Nigeria funded by the Government, and the best doctors employed for their services, making it not only a succor for low income families but also for the general public.
A patient who was recently at the General Hospital, Ikorodu, for tooth ache, shared his experience with Olori Wendy.
He had to arrive very early in the morning, due to throngs of other patients, as they don't operate by appointment and only do walk in.
After several hours of waiting, he was attended to and they told him he has to do Mouth Washing first for N5,000 which he paid for. His observation was that they look at your dressing and general appearance to determine how much they should charge, so some pay lower like N4,000 and below while well dressed people pay a minimum N5,000.
After the mouth washing, he was told to pay for some tests and also buy drugs at their own pharmacy which he bought, as well as come back the next day for Xray.
On arriving home, he checked out some of the drugs, "a whole lot of them", and realised some were not even necessary for his treatment.
The next day, after several hours of waiting as is the norm, he was told to pay for Xray, and after the Xray, he was told the cause of the tooth ache and billed N15,000 for surgery.
He also observed that day that, there is usually no dental assistant with the dentist, and in his chat with other patients, patients are usually made to pay for Xray twice or thrice as they claim they Xray pictures are not clear and blame it on the patients for not being still enough while taking the pictures.
Most of the Hospital workers are also known to be very rude and unprofessional, like they are being forced to work.
Nevertheless, he shared further with Olori Wendy, that he would have to return there in a week for the surgery as there is no other choice, since the private hospital he first went to referred him to General Hospital.
They don't inveigle patients to do the mouth wash first before Xray, as most Nigerians do when swindling unsuspecting victims, they make it mandatory at the General Hospital in Ikorodu and other branches, and would not attend to patients until the mouth washing is done whether necessary or not, thereby making a profit of N5,000 from each patient that walk in for any dental problems.
Sadly, some patients don't even get the receipts of what they pay for if they don't request.
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