Patients at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital have urged the federal government to meet the demands of the striking resident doctors to bring an end to the industrial action.
The patients said this is necessary to enable the doctors end the industrial action and attend to them. Speaking with newsmen in Ilorin yesterday on their sick beds, the patients said that doctors were no longer attending to them since the strike action commenced last week. “My name is Abdulkareem Idris, I’m suffering from prostate cancer. The doctors complain of lack of adequate manpower and necessary equipment to work with. With high volume of patients in this hospital, there is no enough staff to cope with the situation. I call on the government to provide answer to their requests, because they’re working. I’ve been coming here since last year September for treatment of prostate cancer.
I want the government to answer them because so many people are dying. Since I came here, three people have died because no doctor was treating them. You can see how empty the emergency unit and wards are. So, we’re appealing. Our leaders are not doing well. They travel abroad for treatment when they are sick and leave the hospitals in country to suffer neglect”, he said.
Also speaking, president, resident doctors, UITH, Ilorin, Dr Badmus Habeeb, confirmed that the strike action is 100 per cent successful. Habeeb, who said that the doctors are being owed three months salary, added that efforts to make government see reasons with them failed.