The Chairman of Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State, Mayor Victor Ikeji has criticised the delayed treatment of patients whose cases require urgent attention.
The patients, he said, included accident and gunshot victims.
Ikeji, who said this during a meeting he held in his office with owners of private medical facilities in Umuahia North council, advised the medical practitioners to keep to their professional oath of saving lives, saying that lives should be placed above money.
The local government chairman frowned that some patients were not attended to because of non-deposit of initial payment.
He noted that many of such patients could have survived if immediate attention was given to them before the demand for payment.
He encouraged the medical practitioners to see the saving of lives as the ultimate thing.
Ikeji, who also lamented that some gunshot patients were not being attended to because of non-presentation of Police Report by the patients, said that not everyone with a gunshot wound is a criminal.
He advised them to attend to a patient with an emergency situation first and then demand a Police Report from such a person.
