The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu has threatened to embark on industrial action in protest of rising insecurity, shortage of doctors, and poor sponsorship of the residency programme.
The doctors’ threat is contained in a communique issued on Monday, January 22.
In it, the medical practitioners said that the indefinite strike would commence on January 31, 2024, after seven weeks of notice in which its earlier third series of notification of ultimatum to the Enugu state government to do the needful and meet its demands failed.
The statement said the management of ESUT Teaching Hospital, Parklane and the Enugu state government had refused declare a state of emergency on the employment of doctors and safety and security within the hospital.
It stated that the EGM noted that the security men placed at the gate are no longer there and direct daily assault on doctors had increased again; while the safety of doctors and other health workers in the hospital cannot be guaranteed.
“The management should declare a state of emergency on the employment of Doctors in the hospital. There should be an urgent approval for the recruitment of Medical Officers, Resident Doctors, and House Officers in the hospital.
“This recruitment should be focused especially at the Accident and Emergency Department, Surgery Department, Internal Medicine Department, Paediatrics Department, Obstetrics and Gynaecology Departments, etc. Resident Doctors that have left our institution in the past four years and were never replaced.
“Management should ensure implementation of safety policies to protect her workers against physical attacks and kidnap by restoring the daily police and other covert security personnel deployed to the hospital,” it read in part.
