Students, at the University health centre, grapple with poor healthcare services, from being forced to buy basic medical supplies like gloves to enduring long wait times and facing dismissive staff. Despite paying ₦6,000 for healthcare fees, many leave the clinic without receiving proper treatment or the prescribed medications, raising concerns about the facility’s effectiveness in meeting students’ medical needs.
In this report, an ACJOAU correspondent investigated the challenges faced by students who have visited the health centre for health care. The students highlighted the purchase of gloves, staff hostility, and long waits, among other issues, as major issues faced in the university health centre.
Feeling sick on Monday, February 10, LEMOSO, a 200-level Microbiology student, visited the University health centre. This was not his first time, but nothing prepared him for what he would face that day.
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With a headache and a runny nose, he went to see the doctor, accompanied by his friend, who was also feverish with catarrh and a headache. Everything seemed normal at first. He registered his name, as students do, so that the records officer could retrieve his health centre file. Afterwards, he waited to have his vitals checked, a routine that included measuring temperature and blood pressure before seeing the doctor.
Reports from the ACJOAU have previously highlighted the long and frustrating delays at the health centre, where students often wait endlessly for their files to be processed before seeing a doctor. But on this particular day, Lemoso’s name was called in less than 30 minutes. He and his friend assumed they had luck on their side until things took an unexpected turn.
Forced to Buy Gloves Before Treatment
First, the nurse told him to buy gloves from the school pharmacy before she could check his vitals. Confused, as this had never happened during his previous visits, he proceeded to the pharmacy, only to face another setback.
‘They said they couldn’t accept transfers as payment,’ he recalled. The gloves cost ₦150, an amount he and his friend didn’t have on them when they left their hostel in ETF that morning. They had no other option but to trek back to their hostel to get cash before returning to the pharmacy.
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ACJOAU interviews revealed that buying gloves before receiving treatment has become a common practice. To verify, an ACJOAU reporter visited the health centre and checked his vitals without purchasing gloves, showing that the policy might be inconsistently applied.
“Go and buy it outside”: A common refrain.
Beyond gloves, many students are told to buy drugs outside the health centre pharmacy due to unavailability. After LEMOSO and his friend finally saw the doctor, they were both prescribed medications and told to get the medical drugs at the University pharmacy. However, they were given only paracetamol and instructed to buy the rest outside.
The prescription sheet showed that, in addition to paracetamol, the doctor had prescribed ‘Loratadine’ for both of them and ‘Bco’ and ‘Multivite’ for his friend.
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Yet, the pharmacy only had paracetamol in stock, forcing them to look for alternatives off-campus. Frustrated by the situation, Lemoso decided to forgo the rest of the medication. “I just took the paracetamol like that because I don’t have money for drugs. If I had money for drugs, I wouldn’t go to the health centre,” he said.
During his visit to the health centre, the ACJOAU reporter observed several students leaving the pharmacy with incomplete medications and instructed them to buy their prescribed drugs outside. One student, who requested anonymity, had been at the health centre for over three hours, lying on a chair in discomfort. When she finally saw the doctor, she was asked to undergo malaria and PCV tests. But after discovering that her prescribed Hydrocortisone cream was unavailable at the pharmacy, she abandoned the tests altogether to buy the cream and anti-malarial drugs herself.
This development comes despite students paying ₦6,000, according to the new school fees breakdown, for healthcare expenses. The University e-portal explicitly states that registered students are entitled to “free treatment whenever they are ill.” However, this is far from reality. When ACJOAU inquired about this last session, the Dean of Student Affairs attributed the issue to financial constraints, stating that drug availability depends on the university’s budget. As a result, the centre sometimes runs out of stock, leaving students without essential medication.
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“You Just Came to Disturb Us”—Students Face Staff Hostility
Beyond drug shortages, students have also raised concerns about how they are treated at the health centre. Rachael, a 200-level English student, shared a particularly distressing experience. She had gone to seek treatment for multiple boils on her body but was met with an angry response from the doctor.
“Who told you this is a boil? Is it not just a reaction?” the doctor snapped. “Nothing is wrong with you. You just came to disturb us.”
Shocked by the response, Racheal felt humiliated. She had hoped for medical attention but instead received an outright rebuke. Though the doctor eventually wrote her a prescription, as she was leaving, he called her back and took the prescription sheet away without explanation. Perplexed, she assumed he had forgotten to add something. However, he refused to return it.
‘Maybe he expected me to beg him’, she said. But rather than plead, she walked away. ‘A patient coming to you should be welcomed’, she remarked, emphasising the need for better treatment of students seeking healthcare.
Her friend, who also visited the health centre that day, later inquired why the doctor had refused to give Racheal her prescription. He withheld it because he felt she had been “rude” to him.
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Reflecting on the incident, Racheal expressed disbelief. She stated, ‘Assuming it was something severe, and my enemy could die if I didn’t take that drug, that’s how he would just collect the paper and let my enemy die.’
Hours of Waiting, only to be Denied Treatment
Oluwaseun, a 500-level student, also recounted her frustrating ordeal on Tuesday, February 4, when she visited the health centre. Arriving as early as 7:45 a.m., she expected to be attended to quickly, especially as she was second on the patient list. Like LEMOSO, she was asked to buy gloves, a request she found “odd” but complied with.
However, her real ordeal began during her vitals check. The nurse, perhaps expecting her to relax and rest on the chair while checking the vitals, suddenly asked, “Why are you looking everywhere?” Without warning, the nurse pulled her hand back abruptly, forcing her to withdraw reflexively.
As a result, the nurse separated her file from the others, removing her from the queue of those cleared to see the doctor. As she watched other students, who arrived much later, get called in, she was confused. When she later asked why her name wasn’t called, she was sent back and forth between the records office and the nurses’ table. Eventually, it took the intervention of an elderly records officer who had watched the whole drama unfold to create a new folder for her before she could finally see the doctor.
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Even after enduring the long, unnecessary wait, her troubles were not over. When she took her prescription to the pharmacy, she was told they didn’t have the drugs. ‘They said they don’t have it and that I have to buy it outside. Just imagine all that “wahala” for nothing,’ she said, frustrated.
With persistent issues plaguing the health centre, many students have lost faith in its services, opting to self-medicate or purchase drugs directly from pharmacies without a proper medical evaluation. This undermines the purpose of the health centre, which is meant to provide accessible medical care.
As students continue to face these issues, pressing concerns arise about the efficiency and effectiveness of the health centre in fulfilling its primary purpose: providing students with quality health care. Between buying gloves, facing long waits, dealing with dismissive staff, and still being asked to purchase medications elsewhere, students are left wondering what exactly the ₦6,000 health fee payment is for.