A patient, identified as Saba Elizabeth has reportedly absconded from the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba Abeokuta, Ogun State, identified due to her inability to pay her medical bills after receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment at the hospital.
It was reliably gathered that Elizabeth absconded on Saturday when she could not pay for medical bills she incurred in the hospital.
It was further learnt that Elizabeth was admitted to the gynecology ward of the hospital on November 11, 2023, and ought to have been discharged on November 16, 2023.
However, she could not leave the hospital due to her inability to fulfill her financial obligation to the medical centre.
Knowing that she could no longer meet up with her medical bills, she was said to have lied to staff members of the hospital that she wanted to buy food at a nearby store but never returned to the hospital.
Our correspondent further gathered that when all efforts to locate Elizabeth failed, the Chief Security Officer of the medical centre, Akpoji Joshua, reported the incident to the Kemta Police Division on Sunday.
Confirming the incident, the spokesperson of the State command of Nigeria Police, Omolola Odutola, said the police in Kemta Division were helping the hospital locate the patient.
“We are investigating to unravel her whereabouts through her family members,” she simply stated.
Confirming the incident, the hospital Public Relations Officer, Mr. Segun Orisajo, said, the hospital management expressed dissatisfaction with the action of the patient in question for choosing to repay the centre in such an ungrateful manner after enjoying our medical services, brought back to health and decided to walk away when it was time for her to settle the hospital bill.
Orisajo added that “the hospital management has activated all the available mechanism, starting with the Social Welfare department to trace her whereabouts and recover her indebtedness to the Centre”.
“Equally, the management is working on a number of measures to forestall a reoccurrence of similar incident in future”.
