Posted on: Fri 25-03-2022

Resident doctors at the University of College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, have withdrawn clinical services to protest alleged unprovoked assault on four medical officers of the institution.

The president of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of UCH chapter), Dr Samuel Eseile, who addressed newsmen in Ibadan, said the victims were on different occasions assaulted by some hospital workers and patients’ relatives.

He said, “We don’t feel safe working within the UCH environment any more. The lives of our members are being threatened on a daily basis. We have suffered too many attacks by patients, their relatives and some staff members of the hospital.

“All these unnecessary and unprovoked assaults have resulted in surgical procedures and hospitalisation of some of our members,” he said.

The ARD president recalled the attack on one of his members, Dr Saul Adeleke, in 2019 by a patient’s relative while on duty, adding that “although this attack was unprovoked, the hospital’s management had written it off as a minor altercation.

“Dr Babatunde Falade of the Emergency Department was also assaulted on March 10 in the presence of the hospital’s chief security officer (CSO) by an IT student in the Engineering Department.

The culprit mobilised thugs and his friends from outside the hospital to beat up the doctor and the mob was only dispersed after gunshots were released within the UCH premises.

“Although the matter of assault is currently being pursued legally, the hospital’s CSO is yet to make a formal report on this issue to the management,” he said.

Eseile also noted that on March 19, Dr Nurudeen Adekunle, a senior registrar in Orthopaedics and Trauma Department, was assaulted and mobbed by some staff members of the hospital’s Accounts Department.

He said that in the process, Adekunle had his right finger fractured.

The ARD president expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which the hospital’s management handled the matter, saying that it was indifferent and partial.

“The congress of ARD, UCH chapter, therefore, decided that the assaults on its members must stop and that the security of their lives was no longer guaranteed in their place of work.

“Consequently, the association has decided to withdraw clinical services on the account of the assaults, pending the time the management will deem it fit to take decisive legal actions.

“We had hoped to suspend the withdrawal of clinical services, only for an obnoxious query letter misrepresenting the facts of the case to be issued to the assault victims,” he said.

Eseile said the strike would continue until the security of lives of the resident doctors could be guaranteed.

He appealed to the hospital’s management to provide adequate security within the hospital to prevent a repeat of the incidents.

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