With the industrial action embarked upon by the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) going into 60 days, patients are alarmed and the casualty rate keep increasing. Dr. Owen Omorogbe, President of the ARD (UBTH Chapter) says that the incompetence of the management led by Prof. Michael Ibadin is responsible for the strike in this interview with LARA ADEJORO.
The strike action embarked by resident doctors have gone on for close to two months now, is there any plans of ending the action soon?
In the first place we embarked on this action because all other options had been exhausted, it was a painful decision but several months of dialogue with our management yielded no result, we had to give a 21 day ultimatum after 6 months of failed negotiations this ultimatum was extended to 35 days still management showed no seriousness. Sir ARD UBTH is eager to suspend this action because the UBTH patients who are at receiving end of the wrong management of the hospital are our neighbours, friends, relatives, fiancés, brothers, sisters, parents, wives and children, our training is also suffering . We just have to do this at this time to prevent the hospital from running to a halt.
The public is made to understand that the strike action is hinged on Skipping remunerations but the CMD is saying that that is not within the scope of the present budget of the hospital, can you explain why then you are on strike?
The Doctors of UBTH have not been paid percentage of their salaries since January 2014; this is not the case in most federal government hospitals in the country. One wonders why doctors in UBTH should earn less than those in OAUTH, Ife, UCH, Ibadan, National Hospital, Abuja, UCTH, Calabar etc. The only reason that comes to mind is that the management in these institutions is more competent. It will do the country a lot of good if the federal government search light is brought to the door steps of the UBTH management, a lot will be revealed.
Is this the only condition why the ARD UBTH is on strike?
Payment of percentage salaries is not our only demand our demands can be categorized into : 1, deprivation of the hospital- the hospital is been allowed to rot, radiotherapy machine is not functional, CT scan machine hardly functional, X-ray machine is broken down most of the time. Consumables and basic drugs are unavailable. 2 Deprivation of our members – UBTH Doctors earn the least in the country 3. Victimisation of hospital staff – staff of the hospital are been victimised by the hospital management.
Can you specifically elaborate on the working conditions of the doctors are UBTH and how that affects the patients and the hospital in the long run?
Doctors in UBTH are in a terrible state of deprivation from wages to staff strength to conditions of work. Doctors in UBTH are the least paid amongst the federal hospital in the country, they have been receiving percentage salaries for years. They also short staffed in 2014 there were over 650 resident doctors in the hospital today the number is not up to 350, the work has not reduced. A patient once pleaded with a doctor to go home because he has been on call for 10 straight days, the doctor explained with his sleepy eyes and tired voice that if goes home there will be nobody to care for the patient. The sleeping in rooms for doctors on call is in a horrible state, the roofs are leaking, the beds broken, the toiletries leak into the rooms and the doors are bad. Doctors have to sleep in their cars and some have properties stolen in the sleeping room, others had severe illness from sleeping in the rooms. The call food is not fit from a well groomed pet, doctors who have been adventurous enough to test them ended up with dysentery. These in the long run have a negative effect on the care provided by the doctors.
UBTH is about the only tertiary health institution available to patients from Edo, Ondo and Delta States and the strike is really affecting them and UBTH has endured the highest number of strike actions by any federal teaching hospital in Nigeria, what led to this development?
UBTH has endured the highest number of strikes in the country in the last 3 years. There is hardly any union that is exempt it was not like that with previous hospital management. The current hospital management is not competent enough to handle a tertiary hospital.
There have been various complaints about the management style of the present CMD which leads to conflicts with the various unions in the hospital, what are those issues that your union is having against the management style of the present CMD?
The present hospital management is both insincere and incompetent, their budgeting is faulty and they leave out genuine issues and use their office to punish perceived enemies whose only fault is that they don’t boot lick the hospital management. A case in point is the stem cell centre, billions of tax payers money is left to rot because the management has personal scores to settle with the head of the stem cell centre, there are so many other examples.
There have been alleged cases of staff and patients being physically attacked by people close to the persons in the leadership positions, how true are this allegations?
Hospital staff an patients are regularly attacked and brutalised by the chief medical directors contractors who are his blood relatives. A doctor sustained severe facial and eye injuries when he was at the wrong end of the chief medical director cousin’s mood. He was battered and all the contractor cousin of the chief executive officer could say is that he did not know that the victim is a doctor.
You once revealed that UBTH usually charges exorbitant fees from patients when compared to other teaching hospitals, have this practice changed so far?
UBTH charges are about the highest in the country, to obtain a case file in antenatal costs 25000 naira and in the accident and emergency it is 5000. Sadly these patients still have to go out of the hospital to get investigations done and procure drugs.
You also complained about facilities that have been left to rot, can you elaborate on some of these facilities and how they have been left to rot?
The stem cell centre which cost government billions is currently run by rodents and insects; the radiotherapy machine is another example. Patients have to leave UBTH for CT scans and x-rays whereas the hospital has all of these but they are not been maintained.
What is the security level at the hospital?
The security situation in UBTH can be best described as porous; properties are stolen daily from the hospital premises.
What will lead to an early call off of the strike?
The association has made its demands clear, they are in the public and our interest is improved facilities and amenities in the hospital and better welfare for the hospital staff. The demand have been given to the hospital management and any day the hospital management comes to terms with the fact that Nigerians need the hospital and in a good state and start fixing the problem our members will hurry down to work.
No comments:
Write comments