From: Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Benue State Government has described the total strike embarked upon by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in the state as ‘illegal, uncalled for and a calculated attempt to mislead members of the public’.
Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Cecilia Ojabo, who said this at a press conference, on Thursday, said that the issues in contention were not enough reasons to declare a total strike by the doctors.
She said the state government was already tackling most of the issues raised by both the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) and the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), and expressed surprise that without exhausting all avenues for dialogue, the NMA suddenly declared a total strike in Benue.
Ojabo said the only contentious issue was that of arrears of skipping allowances which the NMA insisted must be paid to doctors in the state and that the state government was still looking into it.
Her words, “It is sad that the NMA executives still went ahead to call a total strike. It is very illegal and uncalled for to call a total strike by doctors. Reasons for embarking on total strike by doctors are not genuine and geared towards misleading members of the public. The strike is uncalled for and I will not be surprised if there is a possible political undertone to this strike.”
The commissioner also said in her over three decades of medical practice, this was the first time doctors would be embark on a total strike without recourse to the lives of millions of people at stake by their action.
On his part, Chief Medical Director of the Benue State Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Prof. Terlumun Swende, who noted that Consultants at the hospital were on ground to attend to patients, however, expressed sadness that they could not achieve much because support staff were not there.
“Many consultants are on ground but the support staff are not there and as a result, the hospital has been technically fractured. For instance, dialysis for renal failure patients is done only at the BSUTH. If there is a major accident in the state now, lives would be lost because doctors are on strike. Why go on strike when lives are at stake? Why cripple the whole space without exhausting dialogue?”