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By Kolade Adeyemi, Jos, Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado-Ekiti, Oyebola Owolabi, Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Yinka Adeniran and David Adenuga

• Patients move out of hospitals in Ibadan, Kaduna, Jos, Ekiti

• Resident doctors: no faith in MoU

Patients were left groaning at teaching hospitals across the country on Thursday, the first day of the indefinite strike called by Resident doctors.

Activities were paralysed at tertiary hospitals in Ibadan, Kaduna, Jos, Ado-Ekiti, Bauchi and Asaba, among others.

Last ditch efforts by Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige, himself a medical doctor, to stave off the strike failed.

Although a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed after a long meeting between the government team, which Ngige led, and leaders of the Resident Doctors association, the doctors rejected the overture to call off the strike to allow implementation of the MoU.

“The strike continues”, President of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) Dr. Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, said last night after the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, which reviewed the MoU and the parley with the government team.

Dr Okhuaihesuyi said: “The House Officers and Resident Doctors have not been paid. Concerning the hazard allowance and the insurance, we have been told to wait till five weeks. Those timelines are not acceptable to us.

“We have had such waiting games and promises before – one, two, and over three years ago – so it is not unusual. We have signed so many MoUs for over a decade now, and we are still fighting for the same things. A responsible government will not do that. They need to wake up to their responsibilities.

“Therefore, the strike continues and compliance across the country is 100 per cent.”

Read Also: Resident doctors’ incessant strikes as migraine

Resident doctors are demanding improved welfare and working conditions.

The NARD is also asking for immediate payment of salaries owed to House Officers and last month salaries. They also want an upward review of the hazard allowance to 50 per cent of consolidated basic salaries and payment of  outstanding COVID-19 inducement allowance.

Dr. Ngige expressed optimistic that the government would fulfill its part in the MoU and urged the doctors to call off the strike, but they remained adamant.

Resident doctors in JUTH

Plateau State NARD chairman Nalda Nanpon said his colleagues adhere fully on strike.

“My members have complied hundred per cent following the directive from the national headquarters. It is unlikely that the consultants would be able to cope. I think they will work within their own capacity.

“The unfortunate thing is that the patients may seek to find an alternative for their healthcare services.”

The Nation learnt that consultants reported at their duty posts yesterday. The national President of medical consultants, Prof. Kenneth Ozoilo, said: “We are not resident doctors but consultants, who are not on strike; ours is to provide skeletal services in the hospital.”

At the JUTH, patients with severe problems started moving out to seek alternative healthcare services in private hospitals. A female patient expressed disgust over the development.

Patients groan in Ekiti

Healthcare services at the Ekiti State Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) and the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti (FETHI) were suspended as resident doctors joined the action.

Our correspondent, who visited FETHI and EKSUTH, observed that resident doctors shunned their duty posts.

At the EKSUTH, many patients were stranded as only a few consultants and some managerial health workers were seen attending to patients.

Members of the public that thronged the facility were turned back by nurses and other health professionals who did not join the strike. Some patients on admission were seen leaving to seek treatment in private hospitals due to severity of their health conditions.

A relative of a patients, Mrs Oyekunle Titi, said some of the patients were moved to Afe Babalola Teaching Hospital.

One of the patients, Alhaji Ismaila Yusuf, expressed displeasure over the inability of the sick to get access to treatment in the hospital.

A patient in the accident and emergency unit, Adebisi Omolewa, described the development as an act of wickedness on the part of the Federal Government and the striking doctors.

The South West NARD Caucus leader and medical doctor in FETHI, Dr. Taofeek Sanni, said all resident doctors complied with the national directive. He vowed that the strike would continue until the doctors’ demands were met.

Activities paralysed at federal hospitals in Kaduna

In Kaduna State, the strike partially paralysed activities at the Federal Government-owned health institutions like the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, National Eye Centre and the National Eye Care Centre.

However, resident doctors working with the Kaduna State health institutions did not join the strike.

The Chairman, Kaduna State Resident Doctors Association, Dr. Umar Ikara, told The Nation that his members declined joining the strike because their challenges were different from those of the Federal Government-owned hospitals.

When our Correspondent visited the state-owned facilities like Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital and Yusuf Dantsoho Memorial Hospital, doctors were attending to patients. However, at the National Ear Care Centre, Kaduna, substitute doctors were running skeletal services.

The NARD President in the Ear Care Centre, Dr. Magaji Auwal, and his members were out of the facility. Auwal told The Nation  that they were on an indefinite strike as directed by their national body.

Doctors stay away in Asaba

The story was the same in Delta State where public hospital   doctors stayed home in compliance with their national body’s directive.

“I spent my day at home today resting because our association directed that we do that. But I felt for patients who had no one to attend to them. Government needs to meet our demands quickly. That is the only thing that will make us call off the strike. Enough is enough,” said a doctor with the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba.

UCH resident doctors down tools

Medical doctors at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, yesterday recorded 100 per cent compliance with the nationwide strike declared by the association’s national body.

The NARD President, UCH chapter, Dr. Temitope Hussain, said the management of the teaching hospital reached out to the association for skeletal services but that the association insisted on a total and indefinite strike to press home their demands.

”For UCH, about 373 of our members have not been paid. Our house Officers have not been paid for three months, and that is why we started this strike. Other cadres of doctors, resident doctors and medical officers, about 233 of them, have not also been paid their January, February and March salaries. This is part of our demands,” he said.

150 resident doctors in Bauchi join strike

Over 150 resident doctors who are members of NARD’s Bauchi branch joined the strike.

Their action crippled activities at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi and the Federal Medical Centre in Azare.

The branch Chairman of NARD in Bauchi, Dr Mohammed Algazali, lamented that some members had worked for more than three months without receiving a dime.

‘The patients come first at FMC Yaba’

Our correspondent, who visited the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Yaba, Lagos State, reported that patients were still at the accident and emergency ward, paediatric ward, female and male surgical wards, children ward and pharmacy section.

Be patient with Fed Govt, minister pleads

Minister of State for Health Dr Olorunnibe Mamora pleaded with the striking resident doctors to be patient with the Federal Government.

Mamora spoke at the inauguration of the state-of-the art Modular Theatre Complex and Amenity Ward at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, (NOHIL), Lagos.

The minister said the Federal Government was doing all within its power to ameliorate and improve their welfare within its limited resources.

“I want to appeal to our colleagues, the resident doctors, to please bear with the government, we appreciate what they have been doing.

“We are going to support them and resolve their issues, and we will continue to work together for the good of Nigerians.

“I can say with all modesty that government is truly concerned with the welfare of the striking doctors and we are doing all within our powers to see to their welfare,” he said.

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