JOHESU Strike: JUTH offers skeletal services

JOHESU Strike: JUTH offers skeletal services
NAN-HG-3
Healthcare
Jos, Sept. 27, 2017 (NAN) The Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) is offering skeletal services to cushion the effect of the on-going nationwide strike by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU).
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited the hospital on Wednesday observed that only doctors, consultants and students on Industrial Attachment were seen offering skeletal services to patients.
The report also said the hospital was void of its usual heavy human traffic.
Dr Edmond Banwat, the Chief Medical Director of JUTH, told NAN that the services were not optimal as the hospital currently doesn’t have the full complement of staff.
Banwat said that only the clinics, accident and emergency units are currently functional and the hospital still carries out a few emergency surgeries.
He appealed to members of JOHESU to see reason with the government and call off the industrial action as patients were suffering and to prevent loss of lives.
However, Mr Mustapha Kabir, the Chairman of JOHESU, JUTH chapter, said that the strike was total and there was no clause like “top management staff working”.
Similarly, Mr Emmanuel Ogunbiyi, the Chairman of NUAHP, JUTH branch, said that the current strike embarked on by the six unions under JOHESU was total.
Ogunbiyi, who was at the hospital to ensure total compliance, said that no member was allowed to work, not even the management staff of the hospital who are members of any of the unions under JOHESU.
He called on the public to appeal to the government to meet their various demands as they were the ones bearing the brunt of the strike.
On his part, Mr Isaac Uteroh, the Deputy President North of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), said that the unions embarked on the strike because the federal government failed to meet their demands and also failed to implement various court rulings.
“JOHESU has been patient with the federal government since 2012, and series of ultimatums were issued to draw the attention of government to our plight but with no commensurate response from them.
“Instead, our demands were either outrightly jettisoned, treated with disdain, intimidated with court action and the quick application of `no-work, no-pay,’’ he noted.
Uteroh decried the decadence in the health sector, which he explained was one of the reasons they embarked on the strike.
According to him, the rot in the system was solely responsible for the poor service delivery experienced in most health institutions in the country, saying it is basically due to inadequate work equipment.
He said sub-standard reagents in the laboratory, break-down of major machines and poor working conditions were some of the reasons for poor service delivery.
“The federal government needs to do the needful, as the health indices of the nation has fallen abysmally low because of the poor condition of service,’’ he said.
Uteroh said that there was an urgent need for the government to revamp the health sector and the current strike was a means of driving home the urgency of that need. (NAN)
UBO/MST
Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola