May 10, 2023
The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, has called for quick intervention to save the hospital from total collapse.
This is contained in a statement jointly signed by its President, Dr Sope Orugun and General Secretary, Dr Stanley Nnara.
The ARD in a statement on Tuesday in Ibadan, expressed displeasure over the recent happenings and the worrisome state of the hospital.
The Medical and Dental Consultant Association of Nigeria (MACDAN) and Joint Health Sector Union at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital (LTH) had on Monday commenced industrial action.
The ARD expressed confidence that the ailing hospital could attain greatness and be set on the right path if the needed drastic measures were urgently taken to save it.
“We are convinced that the hospital can attain greatness if the needed drastic measures are taken to see that the ailing hospital is set on the right part,” it said.
It recalled the experience from 2016 through 2018 in the hospital, describing the present situation as reminiscent of such hellish period when workers left the hospital in droves.
The ARD said that doctors and other health workers left in droves due to extremely bad conditions of service.
“For the past two years, the hospital has 73 Resident Doctors running the services in the hospital which is a far cry from the prescribed spread of Doctors.
“We have a resident doctor doing the work that should normally be meant for 10 to 15 and in many cases consultants working without resident doctors.
“Doctors who complete their training and have duly exited the service of the hospital are not replaced, and new doctors in training are barely recruited,” it said
It said the situation had gotten worse that the hospital management was unable to pay newly employed consultants and resident doctors their salaries in the last two to three months.
The association said that the management could not maintain or provide the necessary tools for patient care and more than half of all the departments lack accreditation.
The ARD said the accreditation was the most basic requirement in training postgraduate doctors, adding all the problems are due to poor funding by the state government.
The association said the state government promised to pay the Medical Residency Training Fund(MRTF) to Resident doctors as done in the Federal Tertiary institutions since the year 2017.
It said that the ongoing industrial action by MACDAN and JOHESU as at the time of issuing the statement were attestations to the problems bedeviling the hospital.
