Kwara: We retrained health workers over poor evacuation of a patient

The Kwara government has retrained health workers in the state following the “mishandling of a patient” earlier in the week.

On Tuesday, a driver in the employ of the state unilaterally attended to an “unkempt person” who was evacuated with a COVID-19 ambulance in Ilorin.

In a viral video, the driver was seen carrying the patient with some persons who were not trained to attend to such case.

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, governor of Kwara, later ordered the sack of the driver.

In a statement on Friday, Rafiu Ajakaye, chief press secretary (CPS), quoted the governor as saying the state is not “dropping the ball” in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

AbdulRazaq said the health workers have been trained twice within 24 hours, adding that what happened was an “unfortunate exception.”

“We acknowledge the gap, we are sorry about it, and here we are immediately fixing it. What you have seen is like a refresher course for our men to be at their best in the future,” the governor said.

“I assure the people of Kwara State that we are on top of the situation. Our heart goes to the gentleman that was rescued. His case was indeed that of the down moments of life. He is being taken care of.

“I am glad to say he is doing fine now at our Accident and Emergency Unit. For abundance of caution, we took his sample after stabilising and freshening him up. And I am glad to say that we were right after all. He tested negative.

“Even so, I am saying that we could have done better. That was why we took actions against officials we established did not measure up to our expectations while we immediately fix all the gaps going forward.”