Enemuo Acted like a Traditional Healer - Medical Council

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If not for death, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, the country’s regulatory agency for the practice of medicine, would have disciplined the late Dr. Iyke Enemuo because he acted like a traditional healer.

Enemuo died after contracting the Ebola Virus Disease from the ECOWAS diplomat, Olubukun Koye, whom he treated in a Port-Harcourt hotel. Fielding questions from journalists in Abuja, the Registrar of MDCN, Dr. Abdulmumuni Ibrahim, condemned the decision of the late doctor to treat a patient suffering from a contagious disease in a hotel.

While describing Enemuo’s action as highly unethical, Ibrahim said it was wrong to treat a patient outside a medical facility.

He said:

“It is very unfortunate that he died. But what he did was very wrong. In fact, orthodox
doctors should not behave like traditional healers. No medical intervention by a doctor should be done in secrecy. 

If you are a patient, the doctor should advise that you should be treated at the right facility. Even when in an emergency, a doctor should get the patient moved to the hospital after handling the emergency. So, honestly it was really wrong for the doctor to treat a patient in a hotel. What he did was unethical.”

Punch reports that Ibrahim also called on doctors not to join in abandoning patients with symptoms similar to EVD in hospitals but that doctors and other medical personnel must be properly kitted with protective gear when handling patients displaying EVD symptoms.
He continued:

“A doctor is not supposed to reject a patient, although the consultation between a patient and a doctor is a mutual contract. A doctor has the right to accept or not to accept to treat a patient. But it is unfortunate that a doctor will refuse to treat a patient after he or she goes to the right facility seeking treatment.

If a doctor is up to date in the practice of medicine, he should be well informed about managing the Ebola Virus Disease and that is why the MDCN has made it a policy that for a doctor to renew his/her license annually, he/she must be up to date by way of continuing professional development.
If a doctor is up to date, he will be in tune with global best practices and he will be knowledgeable about the approved protocol of treating Ebola Virus Disease. It is also expected that every medical personnel involved in managing a case of the disease is fully kitted in world standard protective kit.”