There is no more tenable excuse for the health facilities that continue to breach the law by rejecting gunshot and ‘one-chance’ victims. The indefensible breach of the law reappeared in national consciousness this week after the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare expressed concern over the rejection of these victims by hospitals. But this law is pragmatic. The Minister of Health, Muhammad Pate, should roll out and implement sanctions against the hospitals acting in breach of the law.

Rightly, the ministry is aghast that hospitals are still unreasonably sidestepping the Gunshot Act 2017. Among other provisions, it “mandates all medical facilities to provide for the compulsory treatment and care for victims of gunshots and related matters.” That means for seven years, hospitals have undermined the intention of the government to save lives.

In hindsight, doctors cite police harassment and accusations of tampering with evidence to leave accident and gunshot victims to their fate. This reverses the Hippocratic Oath sworn by doctors to save lives. The Nigerian Medical Association must sensitise and encourage doctors to adhere to the oath and the law.

Beyond their Hippocratic obligations, the National Health Act 2014, Section 20, states partly: “A health care provider, health worker or health establishment shall not refuse a person emergency medical treatment for any reason.” An offender is liable to a fine of N100,000, a jail term of six months or both upon conviction. This should also be enforced by government.

In September 2023, there was public uproar when a lady, Greatness Olorunfemi, was left untreated without a police report. Olorunfemi was pushed out of a ‘one-chance’ bus in Abuja. An Abuja hospital reportedly demanded a police report before commencing the treatment. Sadly, Olorunfemi passed on moments later. This is provocative.

A postgraduate student at the University of Lagos, Funmi Odusina, who was rescued from drowning, died after being refused treatment by some private hospitals in Lagos in 2016. The same fate befell Bayo Ohu of The Guardian (2009), and Saka Saula of the Lagos chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (2008), who were victims of gun attacks and might have been alive were they not rejected by hospitals.

In truth, the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, in 2017, promulgated by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, is not entrenched among stakeholders. The law, enacted after complaints of police harassment and blackmail of medical practitioners, protects them in various ways.

Therefore, government must go beyond mere enactment; it must enforce and ensure compliance. The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, must create a special team to investigate crooked officers who torment medical practitioners in their line of duty. This includes weaning officers and commands off the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Decree No. 47 of 1970, which was primarily enacted by the military to track escaped armed robbers and bring them to book. This has been discarded for the Gunshot Act.

With the law, doctors can treat patients and then contact the police to prevent unwarranted interference. By law, every citizen is innocent until proven guilty as only the courts can establish that and pronounce punishment on the guilty.

Everyone deserves to live. Therefore, hospitals must treat all gunshot victims. The NMA and the police must streamline their relationships within the confines of the law to achieve their aims without sabotaging the law and human rights.

This indefensible act paints Nigeria in a bad light and gives the impression of weak law enforcement by government. It must be corrected quickly.

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