The medical facility that refused to treat late Dr. Barine Lenee, ACA, 41, for not possessing a police report, leading to his bleeding to death in Port Harcourt, has denied the rejection, as the National Assembly House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions commits to ensuring that justice prevails in the matter.
At a hearing held at the National Assembly in Abuja-FCT on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, Princess Medical Centre denied the allegations made against it by the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria).
It would be recalled that the late Dr. Barine Lenee, ACA, who was a staff member of the Rivers State government at the Port-Harcourt Water Corporation (PWC), where he served as an accountant and a part-time financial and risk management consultant to the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), was allegedly stabbed along the Trans-Amadi/Slaughter area of Port Harcourt on September 30, 2023.
The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) had dragged the facility and three other private hospitals before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions for failure to offer medical services to the late Dr. Barine Lenee, ACA, for not coming with a police report, leading to his bleeding to death.
Advocacy Centre, which said its petition was based on findings and confirmation by members of staff at Princess Medical Centre to its fact-finding team that the late Dr. Barine Lenee, ACA, was rejected for not possessing a police report, told journalists that the facility, represented at the hearing by an Abuja-based legal practitioner as well as a medical director from Port Harcourt, denied the allegations before the Committee.
Ruling on the matter, the Committee, chaired by Rt. Hon. Mike Etaba, said that the evidence before it does not sufficiently hold the hospital accountable for the death of the late Dr. Barine Lenee, ACA, at this stage. He further stated that the Committee is committed to working with the Advocacy Centre and the police to do a thorough investigation into the matter with a view to holding indicted medical facilities accountable for the death of the deceased for justice to prevail.
Advocacy Centre, in a statement released in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Sunday, February 11, 2024, signed by its Executive Director, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, who represented the organisation at the hearing, said a detailed report of what transpired on the floor of the National Assembly’s Committee room on the matter would be released on its website, www.centreadvocacy.org, on Monday, February 12.
The group called on the police to expedite action on their investigation with a report as soon as practicable, stating further that the alleged denial by the medical centre that it did not refuse the late Dr. Barine Lenee, ACA, medical services leading to his bleeding to death does not absolve the facility of any wrongdoing at this stage.
Adding that, “ADVOCACY CENTRE would continue pushing to ensure that justice prevails on the matter to serve as a deterrent to medical facilities across Nigeria that demand police report before attending to Nigerians in emergency situations, a practice that runs contrary to the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshots Act, 2017.”
Executive Director, YEAC-Nigeria
11-12-2024