Hope of early resolution of the industrial crisis and resumption of medical services at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, were on Sunday dashed as the striking doctors insisted that unless the skipping allowances and other demands made by the medical workers union were resolved they would not return to work.
Medical services had been paralysed for about two months at the hospital as patients continue to move in droves to private hospitals in the state in search of medical attention.
At present the hospital is unable to admit patients into the wards, while doctors are not available at the General Out-Patients Department (GOPD), leaving only the Emergency, Cardiothoracic, Intensive Care, Renal Units, Ante-natal clinic and the Eye theatre as departments still rendering services.
THISDAY checks however showed that in spite of their absence from work in the last two months, the striking doctors have continued to receive their salaries from the management led by Dr. Christopher Amah.
Amah and other management staff had reportedly held talks with the aggrieved medical workers comprising Resident Doctors, Medical Officers and House Officers between July 5 when the strike commenced and last Friday, September 11, pleading with them to call off the strike in the interest of the suffering patients.
The CMD had explained to them that there was no circular from the Federal Ministry of Health authorising implementation of the skipping allowance, assuring that once the fund was appropriated in the next budget the management would not hesitate to pay it.
It was gathered that while some leaders of the medical workers union had agreed to suspend the strike having investigated and realised that there was no fund actually released to the hospital for the payment, some officials of the union led by the Chairman, Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Aloy Ugwoke, have vowed to continue with the strike.
The Ugwoke-led group, which met last Friday, according to one of the union leaders, took a decision not to resume work demanding that the management should release funds from the internally generated revenue (IGR) to pay the skipping allowances.
The management was said to have explained to the aggrieved medical workers that the IGR was not meant for the settlement of workers' entitlements, adding that with the recent directive on the operation of single treasury account by the federal government, such expenditure could not be authorised by the hospital but this fell on deaf ears, as the doctors were bent on arm-twisting the CMD to settle the arrears.
"It is becoming very clear to us that some of our colleagues in the medical sector have other motives beyond the implementation of the skipping allowances, which was our main reason for embarking on the strike since July. They want to play politics with the strike which many of us have said it is no longer necessary because our colleagues in other teaching hospitals have already called off the strike having realised from investigations that no fund has been released for payment of what we are demanding," an official of the union said yesterday.
He disclosed that many of the striking doctors who are sympathetic to the plights of the patients, had during the union's meeting last Friday expressed their desire to return to work more so when they had been paid for the period they did not work, but this was turned down by some union leaders "who are bent on causing unnecessary trouble in the hospital."
Investigations revealed that many of the striking Resident Doctors who own private clinics had been diverting patients to their clinics since the strike began while those patients, who could not afford to pay their high bills charged by such clinics, have continued to besiege the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu, which had been under intense pressure on account of the increasing number of patients flooding the hospital daily.
Following the directive by the Federal Ministry of Health to the Teaching Hospitals nationwide that implementation of skipping be suspended since there was no fund appropriated for it in this year's budget, medial workers at other Federal Teaching Hospitals in Calabar, Ibadan, Lagos, Nnewi and the National Orthopeadic Hospital, Enugu have since called of their strike. However, they were said to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with their management agreeing to implement the skipping allowances as soon as funds were available for it.
Other workers of UNTH who spoke on the development at the weekend said that the insistence of the UNTH doctors to continue with the strike might have been influenced by a Consultant who had been seeking ways of causing trouble in order to sabotage the activities of hospital especially the Open Heart Surgery programme of the hospital. The Consultant was said to be eyeing the position of the CMD but failed to achieve his ambition following the endorsement of Dr. Amah's second term.
Efforts to speak with the Chairman of the Association of Resident Doctors, UNTH Chapter, Dr. Aloy Ifedinso Ugwoke, on the matter yesterday were unsuccessful as his phone was not reachable.
The Chief Medical Director, Amah, could also not be reached as his telephone rang without reply.
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