30th October, 2013
The on-going strike of resident doctors has started to take its toll on the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, as the hospital’s in-patients are being discharged prematurely by the management.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the in-patients, regardless of their condition, were asked to go home or patronise any private hospital, as the striking resident doctors failed to report for work.
The NAN correspondent, who visited the hospital on Wednesday, observed that the hospital’s emergency wards were also empty.
However, it was gatheres that some in-patients, whose conditions were quite critical, were given first aid treatment by the hospital’s nurses before they were discharged.
Reacting to the development, Dr Babatunde Babasanya, the President of the UCH chapter of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), reaffirmed that the association would continue its strike until its demands were met.
The Chief Information Officer of UCH, Mr Toye Akinrinlola, said that the hospital’s management had discussions with the striking doctors, adding, however, that they declined to suspend the strike until their money was paid.
“We appealed to them but they stood their ground. We will continue to talk to them and we hope the strike will be suspended soon,” he said.
NARD has been on strike since 1 October over the non-payment of four months’ salaries of its members, as well as the lack of proper funding of residency training programmes.