16th February, 2020
The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja has condemned an assault on one of its members while on call on Saturday.
The Association in a statement signed by its President, Dr Adejo Arome and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) on Sunday in Abuja, threatened to take necessary action if security agencies did not prosecute the perpetrators.
Arome said that the assault was committed on Saturday when the doctor on call was discharging his duty.
According to him, the doctor on duty was attending to a female patient to set a line for drip when his attention was withdrawn to attend to a child who was in more critical condition at the pediatric ward.
He said that the doctor had explained to the patient’s husband that he had to leave to attend to a child whose case was more critical since his wife was stable.
”When the doctor returned from attending to the child to set the line for female patient he saw a strange doctor trying to set the line for the patient. And when he enquired where the doctor came from, the patient’s husband started beating the doctor and assaulting him.
”The hospital security was alerted then the patient’s husband invited three of his friends from town to come and beat the doctor and the hospital security. The hospital called the police from Lugbe police station and the perpetrators were arrested, but unfortunately, the authorities due to unknown reasons released the perpetrators and asked them to return on Monday.
Earlier, the ARD FCT chapter had sometimes in January gone on a three days strike when a female doctor was assaulted and stripped naked in Maitama general hospital by the patient relative.
And the FCT authorities had promised to beef up security to protect the life of the health workers in every hospital in the FCT.