Doctors’ Strike Paralyses Hospitals In Delta State

Medical doctors in Delta State public hospitals have embarked on strike with effect from Tuesday night.

The medical doctors were calling for the removal of the Permanent Secretary of the State Hospital Management Board, Dr Caroline Ajuyah.

The Chairman of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) in the state, Dr Ferdinand Oshonwoh, told NAN in Asaba on Wednesday that the permanent secretary had introduced “repressive policies”, which were anti-doctors.

Oshonwoh said that some of the policies being espoused by the board under the control of the permanent secretary violated public service extant laws on workers’ welfare.

According to him, allowances of officers, including out-of-station entitlements, are no longer being paid.

He said that Ajuyah introduced the signing of time book by the doctors and described such policy as “alien” to medical practice.

He said, “medical doctors, by the nature of their job “only know when they resume work but do not know when they will close, because we can work for more than 15 hours in a day, depending on the situation in the hospital.

“So, to subject doctors to signing of time book is irregular except the permanent secretary is asking us to be working from 8 a.m to 4 p.m as other civil servants.

“The normal practise is that if you want to evaluate a doctor’s productivity, check the number of patients he sees each day,” he said.

The chairman said that the situation had continued in spite of series of letters the doctors had written to the Board and the Ministry of Health on the issues, regretting that “not even one of the letters was responded to”.

He disclosed that there was a gross dearth of medical officers in public hospitals in the state, the situation had led to regular heavy workload for the few doctors in the system.

“The hospitals are under-staffed and it has made the job of the few doctors in service to be so much, especially with the state government’s free health care for pregnant women and under-five years old children,” he said.

He said that the strike was indefinite and other medical personnel including consultants, might join in the action, if the issues were not promptly handled by the government.

The Chief of Staff, Government House, Dr Festus Okubor, directed enquiries on the issue to the Ministry of Health.