Patients in public hospitals in Ekiti State are reportedly being evacuated to private facilities as doctors vow to continue their strike.
Doctors in the 19 general hospitals, three specialist hospitals and 100 health care centres vowed that the strike would continue as long as the government is unwilling to meet their demands.
The doctors, under the auspices of the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners (NAGGMD), on June 30 withdrew their services, after exhausting 28 days ultimatum issued to the government, in protest against alleged wage disparity, unpaid backlog of allowances, among others.
Reports say medical services at the General Adeyinka Adebayo Hospital in Iyin-Ekiti and the State Specialist Hospital in Ikere-Ekiti have been crippled, following the strike by the doctors.
Many offices in the hospitals were locked and patients stranded because there were no doctors to attend to them.
While outpatients were seated outside waiting in anticipation that nurses and other health professionals, who are yet to join the strike, would attend to them, patients on admission were being evacuated by their relatives to seek treatment in private hospitals. Those who cannot afford the private hospitals as alternative are left in quandary.
The doctors had accused Governor Kayode Fayemi of being insensitive to the plight of health professionals, alleging neglect of the primary and secondary health system.
The NAGGMDP Chairman Dr. Kolawole Adeniyi, said the doctors are left with no option but to embark on the strike following government’s failure to respond to their demands.
He said efforts by the doctors to persuade the government to improve their welfare have not yielded result in the last 10 years.
Adeniyi said the recently-unveiled health insurance scheme by Fayemi would achieve no result without a well-motivated personnel and adequately equipped facilities across the 16 local governments.
He said: “Ekiti State government remains unperturbed about the germane and critical issues being raised. The government has refused to commit itself to the protection of health care professionals, at a time when nations and civilisations are offering support to this cadre of workers, more importantly in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“We take this opportunity to appeal to the citizens to join us in the appeal to the government to heed our demand to safeguard the health matrix in our state, which is on the brink of collapse.”
Adeniyi called for implementation of their demands aimed at improving their welfare, so that they could deliver optimal services to the people.