The strike embarked upon by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) has paralysed healthcare services at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, forcing patients to vacate the facility.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) monitoring the situation reports that patients are deserted the hospital to seek alternative medication.
Some relations of patients who were seeing carrying their patients out of the hospital told NAN that they were forced to leave for private clinics or seek the help traditional herbalists.
Malama Rabi’atu Musa said she was looking after her mother in the hospital, but that they were leaving to seek alternative assistance.
Musa said they have been in the hospital for a while and had experienced tremendous improvement during their stay.
She, however, explained that staying in the hospital would amount to waste of resources because nurses and other auxiliary health workers would not be there to take care of their medical needs.
Malam Ibrahim Musa, a relation to a patient, lamented that the striking workers should not had adopted such a nasty industrial action.
“The decision of JOHESU to proceed on strike is not a welcome development to many Nigerians. They should remember that they are health workers and their profession is meant to serve humanity.
“As medical personnel, they shouldn’t prioritise money at the expense of saving human lives, nothing is worth human life at all,” he said.
Also commenting, Mrs Biola Omale, appealed to both the Federal Government and JOHESU to go back to negotiating table with a view to resolving their differences.
Omale advised both parties not to expect 100 per cent success during the dialogue, hence the need for sacrifice from either side.
Reacting to the development, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Prof. Khalid Lawal, noted that the problem was a nationwide strike affecting all the federal hospitals and medical centres.
He, however, said the management of the hospital had made an arrangement where the medical doctors, consultants with assistance of auxiliary staff would be providing emergency and skeletal services to cushion the effect of the strike.
NAN
https://www.africaprimenews.com/2018/01/11/labour/nigerian-workers-union-condemns-sacking-of-36000-members-in-kaduna-says-gov-el-rufai-has-anti-workers-agenda/
