UITH Suspends Professor Salami over Reckless Handling of COVID-19 Case, Commences Investigation

The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Professor A. D. Yusuff, has announced the immediate suspension of Prof. A. K. Salami over alleged unethical conduct.

Salami who was suspected to have facilitated the admission, management and eventual release of a suspected COVID-19 case at the hospital in Ilorin, was alleged to have put the lives and wellbeing of a sizeable number of healthcare workers at risk.

The CMD said at a press briefing on Tuesday that despite all measures put in place by the hospital to forestall, prevent and manage COVID-19 in compliance with global standards, “we were taken aback to discover how a very Senior Consultant of this hospital had facilitated the admission of a suspected case of COVID-19 at the Accident and Emergency section of the hospital on Wednesday, April 1st 2020.”

“We were fed with the information of a suspected Food Poisoning, as the cause of the death of the patient until we got another lead to the likely cause of the death of the said patient. In fact, it was shocking to us that the wife of the deceased patient had tested positive for the deadly virus as announced yesterday by the Kwara State Covid-19 Technical Committee,” he lamented.

According to him, “Already, all UITH staff with close contact with the deceased patient on the night of his admission, or his corpse have been ordered to proceed on self isolation. Besides, the ‘A and E’ ward and the ambulance used to convey his corpse to Offa had been promptly fumigated.

He said the “UITH management has constituted a Medical Investigation Committee on the Case. The committee which is headed by Professor E.O. Afolayan has other medical experts as members, including Professor (Mrs) G.F. Adepoju who is the Chairperson, Ethical Committee of the hospital, and Dr L.J. Olosunde, who is the local President of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD).

The committee has the responsibility to investigate the allegations of the COVID-19 suspected case that died on April 2nd, 2020 having being brought in under false claims by a relative, Professor Salami.

Prof Yusuff asked the committee to submit its report within a week