JOHESU strike partially cripples health activities in Abuja

THE ongoing strike by health workers under the auspices of Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) has partially crippled activities in some government hospitals within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

A visit to National Hospitals in Abuja revealed that the level of attention given to patients was not as intense as a regular day where the hospital operates at its optimum with doctors affirming that operations in the facility will not be as effective as usual.

Although the environment was so quiet, doctors were on ground to attend to all patients. Nurses, hospital assistants and other staffers from other departments adhere strictly to the directive of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) who asked them to stay at home pending the time the Federal Government will implement the demands reached in September 2017, which include upward adjustment of salary scale, employment of additional health professional, review of retirement age from 60 to 65 years, as well as implementation of court judgement among others.

Investigations by Tribune Online further revealed that all other government health workers within the FCT complied with the strike except the medical doctors who were not members of the union.

Visits to children ward in particular showed that the impact of the strike was not felt as doctors were seen attending to the patients.

One of the doctors, who did not want her name in print told Tribune Online that there was no enough staff to take care of the number of patients but despite that, they would not leave any stone unturned to ensure that all the patients get adequate attention.

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She said there was no cause for alarm as the hospital was still open to members of the public, adding that admissions to ward would only be minimized to help the authority manages different situations effectively as there were only a few hands available.

According to her, even though the laboratories are not operating fully, efforts are in top gear to see that doctors adequately attend to patients who are currently in the facility.

A relative of one of the patients, Miss Sandra, said she brought her younger brother to the hospital three days back and the doctor immediately attended to him.

“The doctors are on ground. Since Thursday when I brought him here, the doctors were attending to us. We did not see any nurse due to the ongoing strike but the doctors are here attending to us, in fact, they are trying.” She commended them.