The Management of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Kwara State has said that no patient died during a recent warning strike in the hospital.
It is recalled that a private TV station had reported that the recent strike in the teaching hospital allegedly led to the death of a patient who was on a ventilator.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin on Thursday, the UITH Deputy Chief Medical Advisory Committee (D-CMAC) Clinical Services, Dr Louis Odegha, said that the patient in question even absconded from the hospital without settling his medical bills.
Besides, Odegha said that UITH, as a tertiary health institution, would never embark on total strike without granting waivers to critical areas like Emergency, Neo-Natal, Oxygen Plant and many others.
According to him, “the report on the alleged death of a patient in the hospital during a strike action of one of the workers’ unions in the hospital is erroneous. I want to state that no patient died at the UITH as a result of the strike.
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“The patient in question was a 30-year-old man who was admitted on August 2, 2020, with a diagnosis of cancer of the lung. He was being managed here and was on oxygen. On August 8, when the warning strike started, he was seen by the team at about 12noon but he absconded from the hospital and could not be located even our bills could not be settled and thus could not be accounted for. He was on oxygen and not on ventilator or respirator.
“During the strike, we had over 200 patients who were on admission and being catered for. It was a section of workers that went on warning strike while other workers were working to take care of our patients. Even those on strike gave wavers concerning services in critical areas of the hospital such as the intensive care unit etc.
“The warning strike was called off within four days. There was never a time that the strike was total in the hospital. Thus, the report was disappointing that a patient died. We assure you of our preparedness to render services to our people,” he said.
Odegha, who spoke on behalf of the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the UITH, Professor Abdullah Dasliva Yussuf, urged Journalists to uphold the ethics of the profession at all times, especially on the principle of balancing of stories before relay or publication.
UITH management denies death
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UITH management denies death