Benue govt condemns total strike by Medical doctors

BENUE State government has condemned in totality the total strike embarked upon by Nigerian Medical Association in the state.

Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Cecilia Ojabo who spoke to newsmen in Makurdi on Thursday described the strike as ‘illegal, uncalled for and a calculated attempt to mislead members of the public.’

The NMA had on Tuesday embarked on seven-day warning strike on the ground that their demands were not met by Benue State government and management of Federal Medical Center, Makurdi.

Ojabo said the issues in contention which he mentioned as non-adequate resident doctor’s general hospitals in the state as well as skipping allowances were not enough reasons to declare a total strike by doctors in the state.

The commissioner lamented that since her over 30 years in the medical profession, she had never heard of resident doctors and consultant go on strike.

She expressed concern over the primary responsibility of doctors, In case of emergency with the total strike action of the association.

According to her, ‘it is sad that the NMA executives still went ahead to call a total strike. It is very illegal and uncalled for to call a total strike by doctors. Reasons for embarking on total strike by doctors are not genuine and geared towards misleading members of the public. The strike is uncalled for and I will not be surprised if there is a possible political undertone to this strike.’

“It has never happened since I started this profession over three decades for a total strike by medical association, i.e for resident doctors  and consultants to go on strike, consultants are always on their duty post to render services to patients when the resident doctors are on strike.”

Dr Ojabo said that state government was already tackling most of the issues raised by both the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) and the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) and expressed surprise that without exhausting all avenues of dialogue, the NMA would suddenly declare a total strike in Benue.

She explained that all the contentious issue was that of arrears of skipping allowances which the NMA insisted must be paid to doctors in the state and which the state government was still looking into and wondered why doctors would go ahead and declare a total strike.

Joining in addressing newsmen, Chief Medical Director of the Benue State Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Prof Terlumun Swende, however, stated that consultants at the teaching hospital were on the ground but expressed concern their efforts without support staff was tantamount to endangering lives of people.

“Many consultants are on the ground but the support staff are not there and as a result, the hospital has been technically fractured. For instance, dialysis for renal failure patients is done only at the BSUTH. If there is a major accident in the state now, lives would be lost because doctors are on strike. Why go on strike when lives are at stake? Why cripple the whole space without exhausting dialogue?”