The attention of the leadership of Association of Resident Doctors, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (ARD UNTH), Ituku Ozalla, Enugu State has been drawn to the press statement by Dr Maxwell N. Egbugara and one Dr Ihechiluru Onyebuchi, disowning the leadership of Dr Ugwuoke Aloy Ifedinso, President of ARD UNTH.
We wish to state categorically that there is no form of leadership crisis in ARD UNTH and the current demand for the sack of CMD, Dr C. C. Amah is based on verifiable facts and was a decision of a well constituted and attended congress of ARD UNTH.
While the name Dr Ihechiluru Onyebuchi does not exist in our membership register, we express pity that Dr Egbugara who had been expelled from Residency training before because of his inability to meet up with the requirements of retaining and completing the program in Obstetrics and Gynaecology will summon courage to write against the leadership of the body that has provided succor and support for him because of nepotism.
It is a plain truth that Dr Egbugara is a close relative of Dr C. C. Amah, and it is on record that Dr Amah in his usual corrupt manner re-recruited the sacked Dr Egbugara into the residency training program clearly and glaringly against the due process. We are therefore not surprised that Dr Egbugara who was in the meeting where our decision to withdraw services and fight down the incompetent CMD, will play pawn in Dr Amah’s hands, at whose mercies he remains a staff of UNTH.
Dr Egbugara knows his time is up! If Amah falls, as he will soon do, he falls too as no new CMD will keep a man on residency for over 16 years in a department as demanding as Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
It is obvious that the CMD, Dr C. C. Amah, cannot possibly come up with appropriate defense for his inhumanity to the patients and staff of UNTH brought about by his incompetence and love for corrupt practices, hence his decision to attempt this divide and rule game which is dead on arrival.
We encourage him to keep up with the emergency and make shift changes he is making in UNTH following our public outcry as those may help cut down his jail term, because we are convinced he will not only be sacked, but will also be made to pay for the pains he put patients and staff of UNTH through his period of bad, incompetent and wicked leadership.
Our President, Dr Ugwuoke Aloy Ifedinso, continues to enjoy the full confidence of members of ARD UNTH even as he gallantly leads the Association in this freedom fight.
Thanks.
Monday, 26 October 2015
Thursday, 22 October 2015
UNTH Doctors cry out
21st October, 2015
ARD UNTH
Dr Chukwuma C. Oraegbunam
Public Relations Officer
ARD UNTH
PRESS RELEASE BY THE ASSOCIATION OF RESIDENT DOCTORS OF UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA TEACHING HOSPITAL ITUKU OZALLA, ENUGU STATE (ARD UNTH) ON THE REASONS BEHIND THE PRESENT INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE IN UNTH.
Preamble
The Association of Resident Doctors, University of Nigeria teaching Hospital, Ituku Ozalla, Enugu State recommenced total and indefinite strike action on Friday, 16th October, 2015 to press home our various demands which border on the inability of the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UNTH, Dr Christopher C. Amah to maintain an acceptable level of sincerity and uprightness in the management of affairs of the hospital.
The current CMD has destroyed what is left of UNTH through corruption and gross insensitivity to the plights of the patients and staff of the hospital. His incompetence, corrupt practices and high handedness has reached the level that can no longer be condoned by doctors in UNTH.
The CMD’s continued boast/brag that he can neither be sacked nor queried by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria irrespective of how long any group remains on strike has become an issue for the listening ear of President Muhammadu Buhari and the general public.
Current Issues
1) Gross and unimaginable degeneration of hospital facilities and quality of services
It is not exactly out of place to classify UNTH as a death trap, because it barely has what it takes to qualify for a primary healthcare facility, say for manpower. As it is now, a UNTH that is on strike is more beneficial to the masses than a UNTH that is not, this is because a working UNTH exposes both patients to untold and unimaginable risks and health hazards.
A situation where common medical diagnostic equipment, as simple as sample bottles for blood and urine collection, syringes and needles are unavailable, is most appalling to say the least. Dying patients are forced to travel a distance of over 20kilometres to private facilities to access these basic investigations. The laboratories in UNTH lack appropriate reagents and equipment to conduct basic and near complex laboratory investigations despite having very well trained laboratory physicians and scientists ready to offer these services.
A hospital as big and supposedly prestigious as UNTH cannot offer continuous x-ray services for 3 consecutive days in week, forcing patients to leave the hospital for an investigation as basic as this. More sophisticated equipment are acquired through dubious means and sabotaged thereafter, such that equipment like CT Scan Machines and Radiotherapy machines are available in the hospital but in a non-functional state for months now. These patients who obviously have no choice are forced to either move to Enugu urban, over several kilometers away, to access CT-Scan and MRI or even travel as far as UCH Ibadan, LUTH Lagos, and National Hospital Abuja to get radiotherapy services for the treatment of cancers.
Most patients who come in with mild to moderate injuries/ailments, become victims of UNTH by the time they are tussled and ruffled down to Enugu urban, over 40 kilometers, to access these basic and almost mandatory investigations which has epileptic and unstable availability in UNTH. Many of these patients either die in transit or have their injuries/ailments further complicated and worsened, while the health workers look on helplessly, most of them afraid of speaking up for fear of victimization. The hopelessness of the situation has created job dissatisfaction for health workers, with some of them being inpatient to retire and ago, feeling in part responsible for these demises.
Even sheets for taking clinical notes, forms for drug prescriptions and laboratory requests are most times nowhere to be found in UNTH. In some cases especially for laboratory forms, patients are given that one remaining copy to photocopy compulsorily before submitting samples to the labs.
Poor and dilapidated state of the consulting rooms and hospital wards are better imagined than experienced. Bed bugs, rodents and even reptiles thrive in these areas. Torn insect proofing on windows have not been changed for a long period of time, ensuring adequate spread of insect borne diseases across board. As we write, there are no bathrooms in the wards in UNTH, patients and their relatives are forced to take their baths in the open bush surrounding the hospital complex. Males and females, old and young are all subjected to this most dehumanizing condition. Patient relatives who come in healthy most times go home with malaria and other contagious diseases.
With a heavy heart, we inform Nigerians that as at today, there is no available running water in the major areas of the hospital. For example, the general and private wards, clinics and laboratories, despite the much ado by the hospital management that they have sunk ultra-modern boreholes in the hospital, do not have available running water. Even theatres do not have access to running waters, as such scrubbing before surgeries are improvised in a hospital supposedly as prestigious as UNTH.
Most disheartening, patients in UNTH are forced to draw water from a relatively shallow well as old as the name UNTH itself for their basic needs. The implication of this on the health of the patients and their relatives who use it should be better imagined. Even primary health care centres have moved beyond in line with the Millennium Development Goals.
So far, we are happy to inform Nigerians that following our cry out and in a desperate attempt to cover his numerous ills and acts, Dr C. C. Amah brought in borehole drillers on Tuesday, 20th October, 2015 to continue the abandoned borehole project. It pains us that Dr C. C. Amah would wait till services are withdrawn before doing the needful. In this, we are happy that our cry out to and for the masses has already started yielding results.
Basic and emergency drugs are not always available at the pharmacies as patients travel these same distances to assess drugs prescribed for them from private pharmacy outlets in Enugu town. Many patients die due to unavailability of emergency drugs in the emergency rooms. Most times, doctors and other health workers have to contend with unavailability of hand gloves and even methylated spirit for months, without explanation, with resultant stress being transferred to patients and their relatives. Several reports by Heads of Departments and their representatives on these pressing issues to the Dr C. C. Amah led hospital administration have been to no appreciable or palpable avail. The risks which medical and health workers in UNTH are subjected to, the travails they pass through in a bid to provide healthcare services in UNTH is quite enormous, and has now been pushed beyond limit.
This has greatly affected negatively, the outcome of patients being treated in the hospital when compared to those treated in private hospitals in Enugu. This has also most negatively affected the training and psyche of resident doctors and medical students, and has led to the loss of accreditation of the Medical and Dental Council and the National and West African Postgraduate medical colleges in different departments, particularly Paediatrics and Dentistry.
The fact that UNTH has become grazing grounds for cattle is no longer news. UNTH has become an abode for animals, both wild and domestic, due of the gross irresponsibility of the UNTH management to sustain the proper level of grasses around the main hospital complex and staff quarters. While patients and UNTH staff are exposed to all forms of infections being transmitted by these animals, others are exposed to the deadly attacks of wild animals especially snakes and scorpions.
2) Illegality and disregard for due process in employments
Job racketeering in UNTH is a fact that cannot be swept under the carpet. The fact that people pay to get jobs in UNTH is an open secret that cannot be overemphasized.
It is only in UNTH that employment letters are most times backdated and people are made to also backdate their acceptance letters and dates of resumption, a dirty way of siphoning funds from federal government coffers. Some of these staff at the point of employment even received pay slips of the money they never received, and these were for months they did not work but were covered by the backdated appointment letters they so received. The employments have even become so petty that appointment letters are now issued in hotel rooms. This is better imagined.
In UNTH, people even start work without due process of filing and mandatory medical examination and arbitrary grade levels are assigned to them without due consideration and reference to the extant laws as enshrined in the public service handbook. Many staff in UNTH as we speak are even yet to do the mandatory pre-employment medical examination. Others did so after having worked for many months. These people, of course, were not reprimanded by the Dr C. C. Amah led hospital management, lending credence to the fact that they may have paid heavily for the jobs and are as such untouchables lest they expose their route of entry.
3) Over bloated Service charges and Corrupt financial practices in UNTH
Patients are made to pay through their noses to assess the substandard healthcare services offered in UNTH. They pay such exorbitant fees for little or nothing offered them in return.
For example, every patient entering the ward or theatre is forced to pay an enormous amount of N7, 500 for oxygen whether they need it or not. Fees are fixed with so much impunity and without regard to the poor helpless Nigerian masses that depend on UNTH for their healthcare needs.
The Hospital theatre is run by a cartel that collects monies for disposables and lab tests without issuing hospital receipts for them. Even after collecting these monies from patients, surgeries end up being cancelled because of unavailability of the same disposables patients had paid exorbitantly for. When surgeries are re-booked, patients go through the same process of paying fresh bills for them.
Details of the fraud on-going in the open heart surgery charade in UNTH will be a story for another day.
4) Unlawful withholding and misappropriation of Staff Salaries
In a display of gallantry in the field of corruption, the management of UNTH led by Dr C. C. Amah has mastered the act of diverting salaries of staff of UNTH. There is an age long practice in UNTH where by newly employed residents and houseofficers will be denied their call duty allowance for their first month in the hospital. When the going was good in UNTH, once the staff finishes his/her program and exists the system, the staff is paid this withheld money immediately with the last salary or at most by the successive month.
Now, this money once deducted will automatically become the property of the UNTH management to misappropriate. To cover their ills, they will subject people who have left the system with all forms of letter, begging from one office to the other for their legitimate salaries.
As we write over 100 house officers that finished their one year housemanship are still being told stories and denied their legitimate salaries up to 8months now. Many of the resident doctors who have exited the system are also begging for their unpaid salaries years after they left the system.
This is just a tip of the iceberg of the magnitude of misappropriation of funds ongoing in UNTH. Fraudulent award of contracts to close relatives of the CMD and his cronies as a safe haven for diverting funds from UNTH will be exposed in time.
5) RENUMERATION OF DOCTORS
A) Proper placement of Doctors
The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF), in Circulars referenced HCSF/EPO/EIR/63755/11/192, dated 4th November 2013 and reference No: HCSF/EPO/EIR/63755/T1/195, 19th of December, 2013, and the Director of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) through a letter with reference no: C.3884/Vol. 1 dated 19th of December, 2013, explicitly and clearly approved the skipping of salary grade level for Medical and Dental Officers in Federal Civil Service. It was clearly directed that the equivalent of CONHESS 10 should be skipped for the CONMESS structure following a National Industrial Court judgment which directed that CONHESS 10 and its equivalents should be skipped for federal health workers.
Since this Judgment and subsequent directives were given, most Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) and Medical Directors (MDs) of federal tertiary health institutions commenced immediate implementation for other health workers since 2013 but not for medical doctors. The NMA and NARD made various attempts to correct this anomaly, when in 2014, the CMDs and MDS were yet to start the implementation. This was one of the cardinal reasons NMA embarked on a 2months nationwide strike in July and August 2014. The strike was called off based on the promise by the Federal Government that the financial implication of skipping of CONMESS will be captured in the 2015 personnel cost budget as the main reason then was that CMDs/MDs did not capture it in the budgets of their respective MDAs.
In UNTH, we were initially informed by several high ranking members of UNTH Management team including the Chief Medical Director Dr C. C. Amah, the Deputy Director of Finance Mr C. C. Onuchukwu and the officer in charge of budget in the accounts department of UNTH, that Doctors in UNTH were properly placed/captured in the 2015 personnel cost budget.
At first, UNTH Management, after initially feigning ignorance of properly capturing doctors in the 2015 personnel cost budget, claimed that the reason why they can't implement the budget which has been approved is because of the global short fall in release of funds to MDAs, this was debunked by the fact that personnel cost budget can only be tampered with if it will be replaced by the supplementary budget, otherwise you leave civil servants without salaries. More so, having captured Doctors correctly, we expressed concern why only Doctors should bear the brunt of a shortfall, if FG cannot sustain the salaries of civil servants, you either pay everyone a percentage of their salaries or pay full salaries up till where the funds released can cover.
When our superior argument on the excuse of shortfall prevailed, the UNTH management craftily moved to non-availability of template for implementation of skipping for Doctors as their handicap for paying skipping. Again we referred them to the Federal Government Circulars which made exclusive and clear reference to the equivalence of CONHESS 10 as the level to be skipped for CONMESS. It took the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health another circular released on 29th July, 2015 with reference C.2262/T/111 to explain simply English Language to our hospital management, clearly stating that CONMESS 2 is the equivalent of CONHESS 10 and expressly directing them to commence payment and guide their future budget articulation.
With this again put to rest, our CMD has now come up with another gimmick, that the Chairman, National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) gave a verbal directive against skipping as such he will not pay us our proper emoluments lest he be prosecuted; we want to draw the attention of Mr. President on the following points as regards this fraudulent claim:
i) The circular for skipping of Doctors emanated from the highest level of civil service hierarchy, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HSCF) and it followed an industrial court judgment. We believe NSIWC should be under the HCSF and as such will not issue directives contrary to the directives HCSF. More so, since the circular from the HCSF followed a NIC judgment, making such statements as Dr C.C.Amah claimed is making an attempt to challenge the Court. This simply explains why The Chairman NSIWC could not have said that talk more of committing it in writing least he will be held in contempt of Court.
ii) As at now, more than 24 Federal Tertiary Health institutions in Nigeria are paying doctors their appropriate salaries based the court ruling and appropriate FG circulars. To limit the examples to the south east region of Nigeria where UNTH is situated, all federal tertiary hospitals have started implementing the FG directive either in full or in part. While the managements of National Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu and Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki have continued to comply fully with directives of Federal Government as per the proper placement of Doctors, those of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital and Federal Medical Centre Owerri have done so in part. This is another clear show of shame on the part of Dr C. C. Amah.
We as Resident Doctors of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku Ozalla, Enugu have after following due process for dialogue, spent over 45 days after our first notice of strike making every attempt to prevent service disruption in the hospital, was forced to embark on an indefinite strike following the Hospital Management's inconsistent position on proper placement of Doctors, reneging on their several promises to pay our due entitlements as covered by relevant laws of the land.
B) 2014 Teaching allowance arrears
Early last year, the Federal Government issued a directive stopping teaching allowance for house officers and junior residents, this was firmly opposed with valid reasons from the NMA and NARD leading to the Federal Government immediately reversing her directive. The federal government thereafter gave a clear directive that resident doctors should be paid teaching allowance.
Almost every institution in Nigeria followed this directive and started paying their doctors teaching allowance as directed by the federal government. Our CMD, Dr C. C. Amah remained adamant and refused to pay doctors the teaching allowance as directed. Following repeatedly failed negotiations, ARD UNTH embarked on strike in March last year to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with their rights being trampled upon by the tyrant CMD, Dr C. C. Amah. It took the intervention of well-meaning Nigerians and the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) UNTH Chapter, to convince us to resume duties, since this was a legal issue concerning our emoluments, that they will prevail on the CMD to pay us our due allowances, for us to suspend the two weeks old strike.
Despite these interventions, the CMD as we write, did not pay the teaching allowance throughout last year, and has also not paid the arrears till date. Little wonder, those who prevailed on us during the last industrial action over 18months, had no moral justification to approach us this time.
The CMD claimed the hospital had no resources to pay teaching allowance in 2014, yet after paying normal December 2014 salaries, the hospital had over four hundred million naira (N400, 000, 000.00) left in her personnel cost envelope in the GIFMIS account which was taken back into the federal government coffers, meanwhile the whole teaching allowance owed all deserving members in UNTH would have cost just about twenty four million naira (N24, 000, 000.00).
As we write you Sir, UNTH is the ONLY federal health institution in Nigeria where residents were not paid Teaching allowance in 2014 and are still being owed the arrears.
C) Advancement of Residents/Promotion Arrears
The unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks experienced by resident doctors in their advancement and that experienced by other healthworkers in their promotion have become enormous and unbearable. A situation where a registrar will pass the prescribed exams and apply for advancement and it takes the hospital management over 9months to process same has called for a public outcry.
To make matters worse sir, when the advancement/promotion are processed and dated back to the effective date the doctor became qualified for the promotion, the accounts department will still refuse to pay the accrued arrears.
In a recent and daring show of shame, the CMD and his cohorts, after misappropriating personnel cost funds of UNTH, ventured into unlawful demotion of some recently promoted members of staff in UNTH including Residents. Though they claim this was as a result of high wage bill as against available funds, they have refused to make available the nominal roll used to disburse personnel funds to ascertain the true financial state of the hospital as claimed.
Their continued refusal to expose this document to ascertain the claim further gives credence to the massive corrupt practices ongoing in UNTH. Full details on this will follow this press release.
D) Two months relativity arrears
Last year, there was an adjustment in the CONMESS salary structure to reflect relativity, which was supposed to be effective from January 2014. The Federal Government in the last quarter of 2014, released two months arrears for such payments, but UNTH management only paid some doctors and left a good number of deserving doctors either under paid or not paid at all. These people were properly and duly captured in the budget submitted for the arrears and funds released in full, but in their usual act of impunity, they only paid some people and left the funds for the remaining people yet unaccounted for
6) Lack of Due Process in the re-appointment of Dr C.C Amah as CMD
We have noted with great dismay, the gross irregularities in the re-appointment of Dr C.C Amah. There was a wide shift from the routine advertorial for the office, followed by an interview process that will select three people, for the honorable Minister for Health to present to the President from which he would make an informed selection. The appointment however remains the prerogative of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
We have reasons to believe that the appointment of Dr C.C Amah was not unrelated to the over four hundred million Naira (N400, 000, 000. 00) the hospital intentionally left in their accounts till December 31st, 2014 which got sucked back into the FG coffers. We believe this was a premeditated action, an indirect way of paying for his second tenure. They caused the return of these monies despite enormous and legitimate arrears being owed to all cadres of staff in UNTH as at December 2014.
Truth be told, there is no CMD in UNTH. The tenure of Dr C.C Amah ended on 16th may, 2015. He is in that office on the erroneous authority of a fraudulent document which we believe he bribed his way to get through the then Minister of State for health, Dr Khaliru Alhassan who signed the document. This document dated 4th December, 2014 is reappointing Dr C.C Amah almost 6months in advance, an anomaly of the greatest order! To lend credence to this fraud, the Hospital PRO, Mr Keleze communicated the staff and general public of Dr C. C. Amah’s reappointment 6 months after the letter was signed and delivered, painting a picture that Dr C. C. Amah was just reappointed.
The fraudulent manner in which Dr C. C. Amah went about his charade re-appointment and succeeded may have given him the courage to continue with his impunity with reckless abandon. Little wonder, Dr Amah has boasted in several quarters that he is untouchable and can neither be queried by the Federal Ministry of Health nor the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, no matter how much any person or group of persons in UNTH cry out. There is the saying that ‘every day is for the thief but one day is for the owner of the house’, the real owners of UNTH are the Nigeria and we do not in all honesty believe that the President, who has maintained a track record of zero tolerance to corruption, will look the other way especially now that the several ills in the Dr C. C. Amah led UNTH has been brought to fore.
Our Prayers
Our demands are simple, logical and straightforward;
1) ARD UNTH calls for the immediate sack of the Chief Medical Director, Dr Christopher C. Amah over allegations of high wired corruption, seizure of staff salaries, high level of extortion of patients, purported sale of appointments, high handedness and reckless looting of hospital funds resulting in gross lack of facilities and poor working conditions in UNTH Enugu.
2) We are calling for an overall probe of the administration of Dr C. C. Amah with an aim to giving justice to the numerous patients who have died or suffered undue morbidity in UNTH because of the poor working/service condition imposed on them by the incompetent CMD.
3) That while we demand for a total overhaul/rebooting of UNTH with an aim to delivering appropriate tertiary healthcare services for Nigerians, doctors in UNTH should be brought at par with their counterparts in other tertiary health institutions by properly placing and paying them as directed by the Federal Government.
Signed:
Dr Ugwuoke Aloy Ifedinso
President
ARD UNTH
Dr Ndiokwelu Chibuzo
Secretary GeneralARD UNTH
Dr Chukwuma C. Oraegbunam
Public Relations Officer
ARD UNTH
Friday, 16 October 2015
COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF ASSOCIATION OF RESIDENT DOCTORS, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA TEACHING HOSPITAL, ITUKU OZALLA ENUGU STATE (ARD UNTH) HELD ON FRIDAY 16TH OCTOBER, 2015 AT THE RESIDENT DOCTOR’S COMMON ROOM, UNTH, ITUKU OZALLA, ENUGU STATE.
COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF ASSOCIATION OF
RESIDENT DOCTORS, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA TEACHING HOSPITAL, ITUKU OZALLA ENUGU
STATE (ARD UNTH) HELD ON FRIDAY, 16TH OCTOBER, 2015 AT THE RESIDENT
DOCTOR’S COMMON ROOM, UNTH, ITUKU OZALLA, ENUGU STATE.
PREAMBLE
The ARD UNTH held its Emergency
Congress on Friday, 16th October, 2015 at the Resident Doctor’s
common room to review
the agreement reached with UNTH Management on 15th September, 2015
in a meeting held at the instance of some Elders of the Medical Profession in
UNTH.
OBSERVATIONS
The congress noted as follows:
1) That
the UNTH Management has reneged on the collective agreement which we had with
them on 15th September, 2015 during a meeting called at the instance
of some Medical elders in UNTH. This agreement was committed in writing by the
CMD of UNTH, Dr C. C. Amah.
2) That
despite reneging on the agreement, the UNTH management ventured into demoting
Senior Registrars who have passed the requisite exams and promoted duly. This
was without any form of notice to the affected Senior Registrars.
3) That
despite our resolution to recommence total and indefinite strike action if the
management reneges on the agreement, we still, in consideration of the patients
of UNTH and in giving peace and harmony further extension, gave the UNTH
Management seven working days ultimatum to retreat from their dangerous mission
and fulfill their own part of the agreement. This ultimatum expired on Thursday
15th October, 2015.
4) That
on Wednesday 14th October, 2015, the CMD of UNTH Dr C.C. Amah summoned
representatives of ARD UNTH and some of the medical elders in UNTH that served
as sureties to the agreement.
5) That
most painfully, members noted that despite non-fulfillment of the promise made
as per the pay of house officers, UNTH
management adopted a new position of paying members 5% of the difference in
their proper placement as against the 50% agreed upon just less than a month
ago.
6) That
the management did not show any appreciable commitment towards meeting their
own part of the agreement nor reversing the illegal demotion of some of our
members.
7) That
the deplorable state of facilities in UNTH has received no attention, as such,
patients in UNTH continues to suffer untoward hardship in the process of receiving
care in UNTH. For example, a situation where despite all our efforts, patients
of UNTH travel over 20 kilometers to Enugu town to do an investigation as
simple as X-ray is most appalling and disheartening. The continued and frequent cancellation of
scheduled surgical operations because of the absence of one consumable or the
other despite patients paying heavily for them will amongst other anomalies no
longer be tolerated.
8) That
members have lost total confidence in UNTH Management under the leadership
of the Chief Medical Director Dr C. C. Amah. UNTH to say the truth is as
good as dead under this management and the need for a rescue mission cannot be
overemphasized.
9) That
we regret that the UNTH management may have succeeded in dragging our highly
revered elders to disrepute again by reneging on an agreement which they stuck
out their neck to surety, considering that the promise made by UNTH management
was given a consideration in the first place because of the surety of these
medical elders. Members recalled that this was neither the first nor the second
time the Dr C. C. Amah led UNTH management is reneging on similar agreements
made in the presence and seal of the medical elders in UNTH.
10) That
we noted that the managements of National Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu and
Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki have continued to comply fully with
directives of Federal Government as per the proper placement of Doctors while
those of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital and Federal Medical Centre
Owerri have done so in part.
RESOLUTIONS
After an
extensive deliberation, members resolved as follows;
1) The
ARD UNTH will recommence total and indefinite strike action with immediate
effect. However, members especially those who offer critical care services at
the intensive care and new born special care units will have till 8am on Monday
19th October, 2015 to tidy up their work and handover the management
of the remaining patients appropriately.
2) That
the strike will remain total and indefinite, until all our demands especially
as it affects our patients and proper placement of our members are met.
3) Members
will no longer take ANY promise from the UNTH Management under Dr C. C. Amah as
there has been a total and almost irredeemable breach of trust and confidence.
The changes must be seen and felt before industrial harmony will be restored.
4) That
our respect for the elders of Medical Profession in UNTH remain intact and
unshakeable, however it has repeatedly become obvious that the CMD has little
or no regards for their integrity which they built over years of hard work. Thus
members may no longer involve them in future mediations with the current
management of UNTH, to protect them from further insult and ridicule which the
action of UNTH Management is capable of bringing upon them. We can no longer
tolerate the recurrent tossing around of our teachers and mentors whom we hold
dearly and in very high esteem.
5) Once
more, we appeal to the general public to bear with us as the struggle is for
the overall betterment of services offered by UNTH.
6) We
call on President Muhammadu Buhari and all well-meaning individuals to come to
our rescue and that of the numerous Nigerians who depend on the services of
UNTH for their healthcare needs.
Signed:
Dr Ugwuoke Aloy Ifedinso Dr
Ndiokwelu Chibuzo
President General Secretary
President General Secretary
Dr Chukwuma C. Oraegbunam
Public Relations Officer
CC:
The President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria
The Secretary to
the Government of the Federation
The Head of Civil
Service of the Federation
The Permanent
Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja
The Executive
Governor of Enugu State
The CMD, UNTH
The CMAC, UNTH
The Director of
Administration, UNTH
The Deputy
Director, Finance, UNTH
The Chairman, NMA
Enugu State
The Chairman, MDCAN
UNTH Chapter
The President, NARD
Notice boards
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| Dr Ugwuoke Aloy Ifedinso President, ARD UNTH     |
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