Activities resumed on Monday at the various government hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory as doctors returned from their 55 days strike that had started since July 1.
The doctors reported at their duty posts following the directive of the Nigerian Medical Association, whose president, Kayode Obembe, said on Sunday that some of the demands of the association had been met by the government. Continue...
Our correspondent, who visited the National Hospital and the General Hospitals in Wuse, Garki and Maitama, observed a large turnout of patients.
The patients were mostly attended to by consultants and medical officers.
A consultant, who spoke with our correspondent on conditions of anonymity at the Wuse General Hospital, said he was overwhelmed by the large number of patients that were waiting for him to be attended to.
He said the situation would be worse as from Tuesday (today), when more patients would probably visit the hospital for treatment.
He said the immediate reversal of the suspension of the Residency Training Programme by the Federal Government remained the only solution to the current shortage of personnel in the public health sector in the country.
The consultant said, “Government cannot just decide to dispense with the services of about 16, 000 doctors just like that. It does not make any sense to me. How do they want to replace them when we did not even have enough human resources in the health sector?
“The question on the lips of everybody now is that where will government recruit medical personnel to fill the vacuum? Are they going to spend huge foreign currencies to recruit expatriates? What is the sense in that? “
The medical practitioner therefore appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to reverse the government’s decision to sack the resident doctors in the interest of the masses, saying further delay in doing so could lead to massive migration of the doctors.
“I want to believe that the Federal Government was waiting for the NMA to call off its strike so that it could reverse its suspension of the Residency Training Programme because it would take many years to produce 16, 000 medical doctors in Nigeria,” he added.
Spokesman of the National Hospital, Abuja, Dr. Tayo Haastrup, confirmed to our correspondent on Monday that medical officers and consultants had resumed and had been attending to patients.
Meanwhile, medical personnel, especially nurses and other supporting staff of public health institutions said they had been avoiding physical contact while attending to patients.
Nurses and other supporting staff were seen wearing disposable hand gloves while they discouraged patients from sitting too close to each other.
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