LAUTECH doctors withdraw services over ‘poor working conditions, unpaid salaries’

Doctors at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, Oyo state, have begun an industrial action “over poor conditions of service”.

The doctors were said to have begun the strike on Monday.

Making the announcement in a statement, Ayobami Alabi, chairman of the hospital’s chapter of the Medical and Dental Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), listed the “poor conditions of service” to include lack of basic facilities like offices for consultants and non-response from management in spite of years of appeal.

Alabi said there was no definite assurance that issues in contention would soon be resolve, adding that the association had made efforts in the past to safeguard the hospital from total collapse and reposition it for better training, research, and services for which it was established.

According to NAN, MDCAN described as unacceptable the continued non-payment of salaries of its members recently employed and decried the “delay and difficulty in payment of 2016 to 2017 salary arrears by the management”.

The association added that some of the other issues in contention were shortage of manpower across the different cadres of doctors, including consultants, specialists across different fields, resident doctors, specialists in training and house officers.

“The prescribed ratio of doctors expected to function in a tertiary hospital is already distorted and highly eroded by this shortfall undermining quality training and service,” the association said.

“The persistent inability of hospital management to employ doctors and other staff hinged on the excuse of paucity of funds. This has led to failure in expanding the scope of training and services.”

The association said the withdrawal of service “is done to safeguard the hospital from total collapse and to reposition it for better training, research, and services for which it was established”.

“The board of the hospital failed to respond appropriately and satisfactorily to all these challenges over the years despite our various engagements, tolerance and show of understanding,” the association added.

“This treatment is anti-labour. It is also considered inhumane with the attending psychological and emotional trauma.”