Sunday Okobi
The strike action embarked by the Association of Resident Doctors, Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba on July 31, 2019 has entered its fourth week.
In a statement issued yesterday, the doctors said they were protesting what they described as a “severe lack of doctors to provide seamless delivery of mental health service.”
According to the statement, the strike action was reviewed on August 19, 2019 when the doctors deliberated for over six hours to review their ongoing industrial action.
The statement added that the review meeting was called due to timely interventions of key stakeholders.
After their deliberations, the resident doctors “resolved to continue our industrial action to insist on standard mental health care for our clients and quality work experience for our overworked doctors, until such a time the hospital management deems it fit to meet our singular demand!”
“The hospital management is insensitive to the plight of over 535 in-patients and 220 outpatients daily who now receive suboptimal, if not pernicious, mental health service in the 20 days that this industrial action has been allowed to fester without goal-directed interventions
“The hospital management has blatantly refused to replace the annual exit of resident doctors for the past four years. Instead, they have let patient load and clinical work increase significantly for hapless resident doctors whose health and academic pursuits have suffered irreparably.”
The doctors also resolved to continue their industrial action to insist on standard mental healthcare for their clients and quality work experience for their overworked colleagues, until such a time the hospital management deems it fit to meet this singular demand.
