Doctors Leaving Ekiti Hospitals In Droves, Says NMA

The Nigerian Medical Association has said doctors employed by the Ekiti State Hospitals Management Board are leaving the general and specialist hospitals in the state in droves as a result of poor conditions of service.

The doctors employed by HMB began an indefinite strike action on June 30 to press home their demands after giving the state government notices of strike for not paying them hazard allowances; three-months outstanding salaries; rural posting allowances and implementation of ‘skipping’ policy, among other entitlements.

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The doctors under the aegis of the Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners AGGMDP and being led by Dr Kolawole Adeniyi, had said they had to resort to the strike option because all other efforts to resolve the problem had failed to yield positive result.

While Speaking with THE WHISTLER, the Chairman of the NMA, Ekiti State, Chapter, Dr Tunji Omotayo, said the strike action was justified. He lamented the poor conditions of service of the doctors in general and specialist hospitals, saying that was the reason many doctors were resigning.

He explained that the set of doctors who were on strike now were those working in the primary and secondary healthcare facilities across the state, saying they the issues that led to the strike had been on for over a year.

Omotayo said no caring government would allow doctors in all general hospitals to go on strike for more than three months.

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He said, ” The doctors did not just go on strike, the issues that forced them to embark on strike have been on for over a year. The association wrote a position paper to the government but nothing came out of it. The main issue is that the condition of service of doctors in the primary and secondary healthcare facilities is very bad.

“Because of the precarious conditions of service, there is constant migration of doctors from general hospitals and specialist hospitals to other hospitals within and outside the state. About eight months ago, those primary and secondary healthcare facilities which are under the management of the Hospitals Management Board had 120 doctors in their employment but now they are down to 71. Not just that the three specialist hospitals had 15 consultants, now they are down to five.

“Apart from that if you distribute 71 doctors to 22 hospitals, it comes to about three doctors per hospital. There are some hospitals with five doctors so this means, some of the hospitals will have just one doctor. So because of the poor conditions of service, the doctors are constantly leaving the employment of Ekiti State Hospitals Management Board.

“Prior the commencement of the strike action, they issues a 21-had ultimatum, the government did not say anything, they issued another seven-day ultimatum after that and that did not yield anything also.

“Also, we have doctors working in theses hospitals who have been on the same spot for 10 years. They only get promotions on paper, the promotions never got implemented. We will not allow this to continue. Prominent people in Ekiti do not allow their children who are doctors to work on hospitals under the mange,enemy of HMB, it is as bad a s that. I find it disturbing that a government that cares for the people will leave its hospitals for three weeks without doctors working there.”

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