Posted on: Fri 18-09-2020

The Chief Medical Director of Nnamdi Azikiwe Uni­versity Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, Anambra State, Prof. Anthony Igwegbe, has pleaded with the striking members of Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) to return to work.

Prof. Igwegbe made the appeal on Thursday, at the hospital’s premises where he was told that the strike had crippled activities at the health institution and sub­jected patients and medical doctors on duty to untold hardship.

He said that the doctors were quite determined to work but needed complemen­tary services of other health workers to render holistic services to patients. “The strike has impacted negatively on us since it start­ed on Monday. The JOHESU members are more deter­mined this time than ever before to press home their demands. It has really crip­pled services here,” he said.

The CMD explained that some of the patients, whose cases could not be handled by the available doctors, were referred to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Uni­versity Teaching Hospital, Amaku, Awka or elsewhere for medical attention.

He clarified that the hospi­tal could not hire help from outside, unless Abuja permit­ted them to do so. He, however, said that no casualty had been record­ed at the hospital since the strike.

He pleaded: “I beg JOHE­SU members to return to their duty posts while nego­tiations continue. Wages can never be satisfactory all over the world and human wants are insatiable. “No matter what you earn, it can never be enough,” he said, while expressing the hope that the government would resolve the issue with­out wasting time.

It would be recalled that chairman of the NAUTH chapter of JOHESU, Ikenna Anahalu and the Secretary, Charles Nwoye, had in a statement explained that de­spite the agreement reached with Federal Government, only some members of the union were paid 10 percent of Covid-19 hazard allowance instead of the agreed 50 per­cent while many were not paid anything at all.

Source: independent

---

---