Date: 2021-08-16

Frustration in Ilorin

In Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, patients expressed frustration over the industrial action, saying it had caused them pain and anguish.

At the time our correspondent visited the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), few patients were seen at the Consultant Outpatient Department (COPD) and General Practice Clinic (GPC), a place hitherto overcrowded by those waiting to see doctors.

Pastor Ojo Paul, 50, said the strike had affected the quality of care for his son at the hospital.

His 22-year-old son, Ojo Favour, a medical student from a Russian university, was referred to the hospital from hospitals in Saki and Ogbomosho in Oyo State due to lack of personnel.

The distraught father, whose son was involved in a vehicle accident, lamented that due to the ongoing strike, the available doctors had been prescribing drugs instead of the surgery his son required.

He said, "He was placed on oxygen from Ogbomosho down here and was stable when we got here. He had femur dislocation and needs to undergo surgery, but the doctors' strike has affected the required attention for him.

"He just came home to (Saki) to invite us to his graduation slated for October and had a car accident, alongside his friend.

"The few available doctors are just coming to prescribe drugs. I was told that if they did the operation there would be nobody to monitor him. The operation has not been done."

Another caregiver, Saka Yusuf, whose son required medical treatment, said he spent several hours waiting for doctors, but to no avail.

The president of the Association of Resident Doctors, UITH chapter, Dr Badmus Funsho Habib, said though consultants, nurses, pharmacists and others were on the ground, patients would always feel the impact when resident doctors, who make about 65 per cent of the workforce, withdraw their services.

"Going on strike is difficult for us, but when we have exhausted all means of crisis resolutions, be it advocacy and negotiations, signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU), but reneged by the government, we have no option than to go on strike," Badmus said.

He added that some of his members at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital were owed about six months' salaries under the guise of moving the affected doctors to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform.