Resident doctors’ strike grounds services at UBTH

Hmmm...Na wa ooo....The ongoing strike by resident doctors, including medical and dental house officers, at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo State, has grounded major services at the hospital, leaving many patients stranded.

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The over 500 doctors under the Association of Resident Doctors have been on strike since June 2, 2015 over an alleged denial of their welfare entitlements by the management of the hospital.

Southern City News gathered that the workers, who had earlier embarked on a five-day warning strike, were protesting, among other things, the non-payment of their financial entitlements, casualisation of medical officers and the poor job description for interns in the teaching hospital.

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It was learnt that the association had also issued a 21-day ultimatum to the management to address their demands or risk a total shutdown of services being rendered by the resident doctors.

Our correspondent, who visited the hospital on Friday, observed that most of the wards in the Accident and Emergency Unit were empty.

The situation was also not different at the General Practice Clinic and other waiting areas.

A vehicle conveying a patient was seen making a U-turn at the entrance of the hospital after the occupants had been informed about the strike.

A worker at the Accident and Emergency Unit told our correspondent under condition of anonymity that patients who came for medical treatment had been advised to try private hospitals because they could not be guaranteed full medical attention.

The source said, “If you go to the emergency unit, you will only find one patient who looks like his people abandoned him there.

“I will not advise anybody to bring a patient here now because after paying and collecting the card, he or she may still be referred to a private hospital because there is no resident doctor to treat them.”

When contacted, the President of ARD, UBTH chapter, Dr. Owen Omorogbe, said he could not make an official statement as the association’s national body had scheduled a meeting for Monday on the next line of action.

But the hospital’s Public Relation Officer, Mrs. Kehinde Ibitoye, said that skeletal medical services were being rendered by consultant doctors at the Consultant Out-patient Department of the hospital due to the strike.

“You can’t expect full capacity because the resident doctors are on strike. The Consultant Out-patient Department is working and skeletal services are being rendered in the GPC by consultant doctors,” she said.