Ebonyi doctors embark on indefinite strike

Doctors working in Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA) on Thursday embarked on a strike action following an assault on some of them a relative of a dead patient.

Under the aegeis of Association of Resident Doctors, they said, in a statement, the strike will continue until certain conditions that will ensure safety of members were put in place by management



Branch President, Chidubem Osuagwu, regreted that they are being forced to withdraw their services during the period the country is battling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Osuagwu: ‘The assailant had gone further to threaten to burn down the hospital and stab to death any doctor he finds around the hospital”.

He said the incident is the third time doctors have been assaulted by patients relative in two months.

“Within this same period, there are four recorded cases of near assaults on doctors diligently carrying out their duties”, he said..

The President said the association had within this period adopted diplomatic approaches including reaching out to the Management of AEFUTHA, the police and other law enforcement agencies to see what can be done to stop this ugly trend but noted that this approach as at has not yielded the desired result.



“We as doctors working in AEFUTHA face very serious challenge in caring for Ebonyians and other patients from outside the state. Most of the time, the patients present very late to us when little or nothing can be done to save them.

“This is usually after they have spent several days in TBA homes, traditional medicine homes or even in their places of worship and are now at the point of death. Most of them come to hospital with no money and often times the doctors task themselves to contribute money to procure drugs to make sure these patients receive the appropriate treatment.

“Doctors in AEFUTHA are often called out in dare emergencies to donate blood to save the life of patients who were brought to hospital in shock from either vaginal bleeding or road traffic accident who require surgery and urgent blood transfusion to stay alive.

“Most of the relatives of these patients refuse donating blood to save them claiming either that they are not the patient’s husband or relative or that they will die if they donate blood.

“The hospital Management has also been very sympathetic to the plight of Ebonyians and has gone out of her way to approve the treatment of patients even when they present without money to ensure that lives are saved at all costs.

“With all these in mind, it becomes very worrisome why this same people who have received this level of care and compassion both from the doctors, other hospital staff and the hospital Management will turn around and pay back with assault on doctors and other health workers”, the statement said..