Teaching hospital discharges patients as resident doctors continue strike

The management of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) has compulsorily discharged patients following refusal by striking health workers to return to work.

The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), yesterday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the lingering trade dispute between the Joint Health Staff Union (JOHESU) and management of the institution, failing which they would join other workers in the strike.

Addressing journalists in Jos, President of the ARD, Dr. Kefas Ibrahim, said they would not hesitate to grind the entire activities to a halt if the President did not intervene.

He said that what is happening in JUTH was not different from the prevailing situation in other institutions, but that of JUTH is prolonged because of the management style.

Kefas, who accused ministry officials of complicity in the strike, said: “This is to call the attention of the Federal Government to the happenings in JUTH. In the past three years, the management of JUTH has not been delivering on its mandate as no year had passed without JUTH being on strike for at least six months and the management has shown incompetence in managing the institution.

“Most of the problems bedeviling the health sector are not per ultra to JUTH, but the management had shown incompetence in resolving the issues. For instance, of all the institutions that had embarked on strike, it is only JUTH that had insisted on no-work-no-pay, whereas whenever we want to embark on strike, we give at least three notices and yet when we go on strike, the management would go on the discharge of patients from the hospital.”

Also, Secretary-General of ARD, Dr. Paul Agboh, in an interview with journalists in Jos said that the patients had to be discharged because the nurses and other paramedical members of staff are not working.

He said: “We had to discharge some patients and leave those who are critically ill because there is nobody to attend to them. But the situation may become more severe if by next week, there is no intervention from the President.

When The Guardian visited the hospital, patients were seen leaving the premises.