The Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja (FTHL) chapter of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) has once more requested that President Bola Tinubu and Ali Pate launch an investigation into the hospital’s wickedness, depreciation, and inhuman treatment before it completely collapses.
Members of the association also demanded for the immediate reinstatement of their President, Dr. Jimoh Umar, who was suspended last year for the association’s activities.
Dr. Olushola Baoku, the immediate past chairman of the association, lamented that the hospital can only boast of having 43 doctors in the current operating environment during a further peaceful protest held on Friday at the hospital’s Lokoja location.
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He added that many doctors working for the hospital are under a devilish contract, having to renew their contracts with the management every two months, and that this is absurd in a nation that invests a lot in the health sector.
“This category of doctors have no pension, no promotion, no hazard allowance, no minimum wage award and they work in a harsh environment where facilities in the hospital are not functioning.
We are aware that the hospital’s management has been instructed by the federal government to use the hospital’s internal generated revenue to clear all outstanding arrears, but we are shocked to learn that this hospital has a colossal debt to its employees.
“Some of our doctors at this hospital have been renewing their contracts rather than the management has fully engaged them,” the hospital’s president said. Because of an acute shortage of manpower in all of the hospital’s units and divisions since 2012, this hospital hasn’t employed a single doctor or other health workers.
This is the third protest Resident Doctors from Lokoja’s Federal Teaching Hospital are staging in the past one week. Some people who believe they are above the law make things worse and more difficult for us and the hospital because we have chosen to remain in this country to serve our father’s country.
The Olatunde Alabi-led administration has transformed this hospital into a slave trade center. The hospital is merely a doctors’ labor camp.
We have written 14 petitions to NMA leaders complaining about the state of this hospital, including Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate, the minister of health, Prof. George Akume, the head of the SGF, and recently the Permanent Secretary, the federal ministry of health.
“Perhaps the authority has chosen to permit the hospital’s collapse as a result of the inaction of the few hospital managers.
There was no light everywhere in the hospital, according to the records, and an attendant who worked in the hospital was admitted to the hospital was diagnosed with a sickness and was transported to the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit. This is how the women who died from a sickness can be treated if there is light. She spent more than 20 years working in a hospital before passing away.
“The other time, someone who brought a sick relative to the hospital beaten them because there was no way to end a safe life with malfunctioning equipment.
The hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) cannot keep a patient for three hours because of its lack of facilities, and as a result, the president of our association fought back and demanded a face lift, leading to the persecution, suspension, and now fake termination of Dr. Jimoh Umar.
Dr. Baoku claimed that Dr. Olatunde Alabi, the hospital’s chief medical director, has been dragging his way to making Dr. Jimoh Umar the association president, and that the Permanent Secretary had instructed the health minister to order Dr. Umar to be immediately reinstated.
The Permanent Secretary, Ms. Kachollom Shangti Daju, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, has approved Dr. Jimoh Umar’s reinstatement as a doctor since December 12, 2024.
The letter arrived in the FTHL on January 11, 2025, but the CMD, Dr. Olatunde Alabi, had it’s own agenda. According to Section 3 of the Civil Service Rule, all we as doctors are saying is that the CMD must follow the superior order.
Source: Channels TV
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