The Nigerian emergency department

In the Nigerian emergency department, the expectations of the patients and their relatives are the same as anywhere else. What differs is the manner and extent to which this is met. The facilities and personnel available to handle emergency situations in several emergency rooms vary, depending on the hospital.

The new single storey adult accident and emergency building of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ife, one of the oldest and largest hospitals in Nigeria, has about 20 couches, a number which is well below capacity. Often trolleys and stretchers in cubicles, on the corridor, and sometimes even, the floor supplement the beds. Such is the scene …