CMD tasks striking UBTH doctors to call off strike

Members of the Association of Resident Doctors at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) have been urged to call off their two-month old strike.

The Chief Medical Director, Prof Michael Ibadin, said the appeal became necessary to save the lives of patients.He urged them to uphold the sanctity of their oath as professionals by giving attention to patients at all times.

Ibadin described the strike as an ominous sign that some desperate resident doctors were working to undermine the efforts of the hospital’s management to provide patients with quality and sustainable healthcare service delivery.

He said it was unpatriotic for them to embark on strike when the management was working to ensure that their demands were met.The CMD urged them to come to the negotiating table with management, while refuting recent newspapers reports which he alleged were meant to discredit his leadership.

According to him, UBTH has become a model among the tertiary hospitals in the country, adding that the malicious publications against the CMD would cause more tension and prolong the strike.

The CMD explained that the strike was already having its toll on patients in the state and the neighbouring Delta and Ondo, who have been denied access to quality health facilities.

According to the hospital’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mrs. Ibitoye Kehinde, the doctors’ actions were calculated to paint the hospital in a bad light.

Among other things, the doctors are demanding that the hospital be properly equipped, while the charges paid by patients are reduced.He dismissed the allegations by the doctors that the negotiation with the management over the issues of allowances had ended in a deadlock.

The PRO said the allegations that the hospital management was ‘insincere and incompetent’ amounted to desperation by the doctors and their sponsors to destabilise the hospital.

He said such moves would frustrate the hospital’s commitment to promote standard practice for patients seeking medical care in the south-south region.Kehinde added that the management had invoked a no-work, no-pay order, in line with the Federal Government’s policy and urged them to make themselves available for negotiation.

The striking doctors had also blamed the team of the Federal Ministry of Health, led by the Head, Department of Hospital Services (DHS) Dr. Wapada Balami for the failure in meeting their demands.