LAGOS, - Medical services in public hospitals in Delta State were groundedyesterday following a strike by medical doctors in the state. The doctors, who areprotesting against what they described as “insensitivity” of the authorities to their demands, began the strike on Tuesday night.
The Chairman of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) in the state, Dr. Ferdinand Oshonwoh, said in Asaba, the statecapital, that one of theirdemands was the removal of a top official of the State Hospitals Management Board.
Oshonwoh claimed that the official had introduced “repressive and draconian policies”.
The NARD chairman saidthat some of the policies being adopted by the board under the control of the official violated existing laws on workers' welfare in the public service.
He said, for instance, allowances of officers, including out-of-station entitlements, were no longer being paid.
Oshonwoh accused the board of introducing the signing of time book by doctors and described the policy as “alien” to medical practice.
He said medical doctors,by the nature of their job, “only know when they resume work but do not know when theyclose because we can work for more than 15 hours in a day, depending on the situation in the hospital.
“So, to subject doctors to signing of time book is irregular, except the board is asking us to be working from 8a.m. to 4p.m. like other civil servants.
“The normal practice is that if you want to evaluate a doctor's productivity, check the number of patients he sees each day.”
No comments:
Post a Comment