The two-week-old industrial action embarked upon by the Joint Health Staff Union (JOHESU) has claimed lives of three patients on admission at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the teaching hospital had recorded death of no fewer than three patients as at last Friday, while other patients on admission at the hospital were said to have been abandoned to their fate.

A relative of a patient on admission, Mrs Dupe Adeleke, said that doctors could not perform surgery on patients.

"My mother is due for an operation but the doctors have not been able to perform the surgery because they claimed that the striking health workers have locked up the equipment," she said.

A patient, who simply identified himself as Sulyman, said he had not been able to get treatment after undergoing surgery owing to the strike.

"I had surgery before the strike began but now there is no one to attend to me. For my X-ray, I had to go to a private diagnostic centre and pay exorbitant fees for the service," he lamented.

The Public Relations Officer of UITH, Mr Oba Kadiri, who confirmed the death of three patients on admission, described the situation, which led to their death as unfortunate.

He decried the locking up of vital areas in the hospital by the striking workers, an action he noted was endangering the lives of patients.

Health workers nationwide under the aegis of JOHESU had embarked on indefinite strike over Federal Government's failure to meet their demands which include; non-skipping of consolidated health salary scale, CONHESS 10, call shift and other professional allowances among others.