Resident doctors in Ekiti to join national strike Thursday

Strike

Ariwodola Idowu

 Ado Ekiti, Sept. 5, 2017, (NAN) The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) Chapter, will join the ongoing national strike on Thursday, the chapter’s President, Dr Tunji Olaoye, has said.

Olaoye told newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday that the chapter decided to shelve  its plan to join the nationwide strike  because of  the ongoing accreditation of the Surgery Department of the institution.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that visited the hospital on Tuesday  observed that normal activities were still ongoing in the various wards with doctors and other medical personnel attending to patients.

Olaoye said resident doctors in the hospital would join the strike because of poor welfare and in line with its national headquarters’ directives.

Olaoye said  that the Ekiti State Government, which owns the hospital, was owing resident doctors six months’ arrears of salary.

He explained that apart from salary arrears owed them , the doctors were also  not appropriately placed in the service cadre, which was affecting their career

progression.

“We are joining the strike on Thursday after the ongoing accreditation  might have ended on Wednesday. We want to appeal to our patients to bear with us.

“The problem with us in Nigeria is that we are not sensitive to issues that affect workers. Several ultimatums were issued but no response

from the government until the action began.

“When somebody is not well taken care of,  how do you expect him to give his best? Resident doctors are just a segment of the medical workers, we

have consultants on ground and other health workers,”he said.

The Chief Medical Director, EKSUTH, Dr Kolawole Ogundipe, said though it was true normal activities were going on at the hospital for now, efforts were being made to ensure that “the system does not collapse.”

 “In spite of the fact that strike had commenced at the

national level, it has been deferred here because the

accreditation team has arrived here and the strike is on hold.

“We will continue to engage our local chapter and  negotiate to address their problems, so that we don’t have significant disruption of services here.

“We should put our hands together to ensure that the system does not collapse. We are discussing and we are going to put our local issues in the right perspective.

“This hospital is owned by the Ekiti State Government and not the Federal Government and the responsibility of paying the doctors there  falls on the state government,” he said.(NAN)

ARIS/IFY/PAD

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Edited by Ifeyinwa Omowole/Peter Dada.