By George Mgbeleke <\/p>\n
Disturbed by the sudden death of a snake bite victim in Abuja recently, Senate on tuesday called on governments at all levels to urgently address gaps in emergency healthcare delivery by mandating the availability of minimum stocks of anti-venom and other life-saving antidotes in hospitals across Nigeria, particularly in high-risk and snake-prone areas.<\/p>\n
The resolution followed a point of order raised by Senator Idiat Adebule (Lagos West), who drew lawmakers\u2019 attention to the death of a young Nigerian, Ifunaya Nwangene, allegedly due to the absence of anti-venom at the hospital where she was taken after suffering a snakebite.<\/p>\n
Describing the incident as a painful and avoidable tragedy, Senator Adebule said no Nigerian should lose their life to treatable emergencies because of poorly equipped health facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is heartbreaking that in this day and age, a young Nigerian could lose her life simply because a hospital did not have access to basic anti-venom,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a systemic failure that requires urgent legislative and executive intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The motion received overwhelming support from senators, who called for stricter regulations to ensure that hospitals, especially those in rural and high-risk communities, maintain mandatory stocks of anti-venom and other critical antidotes.<\/p>\n
Contributing to the debate, Senator Sunday Karimi (Kogi West) stressed the need to prioritise states with high incidences of snakebites.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many parts of the country, snakebites are a common occurrence, yet our hospitals are grossly unprepared. This resolution is about saving lives and enforcing accountability,\u201d Karimi said.<\/p>\n
Also speaking, Senator Anthony Ani (Ebonyi South) urged that compliance with minimum medical stock requirements be linked to hospital licensing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must go beyond resolutions. Hospitals that cannot meet basic emergency care standards should not be allowed to operate,\u201d Ani stated.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Senator Titus Zam (Benue North-West) noted that rural dwellers are often the most affected by inadequate healthcare facilities.<\/p>\n
The poor and those in remote communities bear the brunt of these failures. Ensuring access to anti-venom is a matter of social justice,\u201d Zam said.<\/p>\n
The Senate consequently resolved that compliance with minimum anti-venom and antidote stock requirements should be made a prerequisite for the licensing of new hospitals and the renewal of licences for existing ones nationwide.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, Senate President Godswill Akpabio expressed condolences to the family of the deceased and Nigerians at large, describing the incident as deeply saddening and unacceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a loss that should never have happened. As a nation, we must do better to protect the lives of our citizens,\u201d Akpabio said.<\/p>\n
He thereafter led the chamber in a minute of silence in honour of the late Ifunaya Nwangene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke Disturbed by the sudden death of a snake bite victim in Abuja recently, Senate on tuesday called on governments at all levels to urgently address gaps in emergency healthcare delivery by mandating the availability of minimum stocks of anti-venom and other life-saving antidotes in hospitals across Nigeria, particularly in high-risk and snake-prone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6052,3662,1154],"class_list":["post-10800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-availability","tag-mandating","tag-minimum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10801,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10800\/revisions\/10801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}