Bassey Inyang in Calabar
The management of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) has warned the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMSLN) to desist from fuelling further crisis in the health institution.
The management described the attitude of members of the association as irresponsible unionism, saying their approach to issues concerning them and management of the hospital was against the ethics of their profession.
The hospital management stated this against the backdrop of an apparent battle for supremacy between medical doctors and the laboratory scientists over the headship of the UCTH laboratory unit.
The medical doctors are insisting that the law establishing teaching hospitals in the country and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria enabling laws empower medical doctors to head departments in hospitals. But the medical laboratory scientists are holding strongly to the view that they are the right people to head the laboratory unit.
To this end, the laboratory scientists have also accused the management of UCTH of according undue preference to medical doctors against the laboratory scientists and their students in the hospital.
The laboratory scientists have severally accused the hospital management of using security operatives to harass their members.
Commenting on the faceoff between the laboratory scientists and the hospital management, the Chief Medical Director of UCTH, Prof. Ikpeme Asanye Ikpeme, described the associations approach to their demands as unruly.
Ikpeme said it was unfortunate that the association is peddling falsehood in the media in order to win the sympathy of the federal ministry of health and the public.
He said: “The attention of the management of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital has been drawn to the various misinformation and lopsided stories extensively peddled by the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria and circulated by the electronic and social media. It is unfortunate that such blatant fabrications could emanate from the association.
“Among other deliberate fabrications, it is indeed worrisome that the death of a young man who collapsed and died on his private property outside the hospital and in the presence of his father could be politicised to seek unmerited attention.
“This is irresponsible unionism at its peak. As a responsible management, it would be an exercise in futility to join issues with the already poisoned minds, apart from preempting the outcome of the reports expected from the panels of inquiry set up by the managements of the hospital and the University of Calabar to investigate the matter,”
However, Ikpeme urged the public, the stakeholders, and staff of the UCTH to remain calm and disregard the rumours making the rounds about the hospital.
“Truth, no matter the level of concealment, will be exposed at the appropriate time,” Ikpeme said.
