Patients’ Bill of Right: FCCPC receives 100 complaints in 1 year

Sun, Jun 28, 2020
By publisher
2 MIN READ

Business

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), says it receives about 100 complaints from people between the time of inauguration of Patients’ Bill of Rights in July 2018 and end of 2019.

The FCCPC Director General, Mr Babatunde Irukera disclosed this when he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.

Irukera said after the initiation and prior to the inauguration of the bill in July 2018, the commission received only one complaint.

He explained that the bill had also made significant impacts as four medical practitioners were suspended; four others were disciplined while some were still under disciplinary process in the past one year.

“This year, we have for the very first time, a public enquiry into the conduct of a medical facility when there were allegations that a young lady who was stabbed by robbers was presented at the facility and they did not provide emergency intervention.

“On account of the fact that there was no police report; without determining one way or the other on the veracity of the allegations, we had a very large public inquiry which was on live television.

“I think those are game changers. Because I always believe that consequence is the greatest modifier of human behaviour and to the extent we have a robust consequence management system. People’s behaviour have been significantly modified

“There has been a lot of push back from some of the people in the medical community. I think we are ready for that.

“Everybody understands that this regulatory interface has come to stay.

“When people, whether doctors, lawyers or accountants or whoever they are, understand that their conduct will be subject to scrutiny, they will modify their behaviours significantly,” he said.

Irukera noted that it was after the inauguration of the bill that health value chain workers became aware of some of their responsibilities and also the patients recognised the responsibilities that were owed to them. (NAN)

– Jun. 28, 2020 @ 17:25 GMT |

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