The ongoing strike by doctors in the Federal Government hospitals has claimed the life of the wife of the Kwara State Correspondent of National Trumpet, Mrs. Christiana Akinpelu.

According to the deceased’s husband, Mr. Kehinde Akinpelu,  the woman, who was aged 43 years, had taken ill on Wednesday night  but died at Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomosho in Oyo State, where she had been referred to  by a  doctor in a private hospital in Ilorin due to the ongoing doctors’ strike.

Akinpelu stated that  at BUTH,  they were directed to do some tests at the Advanced Diagnostic Centre in Ilorin.

He added that they managed to go back with the test result to Ogbomosho where the woman eventually died.

The deceased  would be buried on Saturday. 

The Kwara State Correspondents Chapel in a statement on Friday by  its Chairman,  Mr. Layi Olanrewaju, and Secretary,   Alhaji Biola Azeez, called on the Federal Government and other stakeholders in the health sector to urgently bring to an end the impasse in the nation’s health sector.

The group blamed the strike for the death of the woman.

It said, “If the doctors were on duty at UITH, there wouldn’t have been any reason to be sending this young family back and forth and the precious time wasted travelling between Ogbomosho and Ilorin could have been devoted to saving her life.

“Even the unnecessary stress the deceased went through were clearly avoidable in an environment with quality health personnel but who are up in arms against their employers over issues they argue are justified.

“We believe that both government and the doctors should sit down and be reasonable in ending this unnecessary strike that has led to a number of avoidable deaths. We would like to tell the doctors that no welfare package is worth the life of a single patient.

“While we appreciate the right of doctors to agitate over their working conditions, we however ask that the saving of lives, which
they swore to be their primary duty while being commissioned into the profession should be much more of concern to them.”