Doctors’ strike: Relations hire ambulances to evacuate patients from LUTH

Patients in admission at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi Araba are being evacuated by their relations to private institutions for proper treatment.

This is as Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Professor Chris Bode, had said that the hospital would not be admitting new patients due to the ensuring nationwide strike action embarked by resident doctors.

Meanwhile, the National Industrial Court, which sat in Abuja on Wednesday, rejected the plea by the Federal Government to grant an exparte motion restraining resident doctors under the aegis of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) from continuing in the strike action.

Stating that the legal procedures, which included 21 days’ notice where adequately followed by the aggrieved physicians before embarking on the strike, the presiding judge in a statement made available to Nigerian Tribune by the National Treasure of NARD, Dr Ugwuoke Aloy, reportedly adjudged the industrial action as unstoppable under the law.

The statement read that “the judge also granted an order that the Federal Government be put on notice on: splitting of residency training and sacking/victimisation of resident doctors because of the strike”.

At LUTH when Nigerian Tribune visited, about three critically ill patients, brought to the Accident and Emergency Wards 1 and 2, were wheeled into ambulances en route to alternative healthcare providers by their relations.

Also patients in most of the wards were also vacating the hospital for better treatment. While staff presence at the wards, consulting rooms and administrative blocks were very low as only few nurses were seen giving skeletal treatment like injections and drugs to remaining patients at the wards.

Also no new admission was recorded at Gbagada General Hospital and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital at the Accident and Emergency units, while services were not halted at the Federal Medical College, Yaba at the time of filing this story.