S’East Resident Doctors Decry Health Facilities’ Decay

The South East caucus of the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) has decried poor state of health facilities in tertiary health institutions in the zone.
Speaking at a news conference in Enugu, the President of the association, Dr Chijioke Udu, said the 10 accredited health facilities in the zone lacked basic equipment to support medical services.
Udu said that upgrade of facilities in these centres was part of the demands made by the association to the Federal Government.
“Patients in the South East have continued to suffer the effects of the poor state of facilities in our tertiary health institutions.
“For example, patients diagnosed with cancer do not have access to any radiotherapy machine in the entire South East in spite of the presence of 10 tertiary health institutions.
“Patients are left at the mercy of few private hospitals to get medium level investigations like CT-scans and MRIs because those available in public health institutions are either moribund or outdated,” he said.
Udu said that the leadership had done everything  possible to get the government to upgrade the facilities.
He said some tertiary health institutions in the zone had remained adamant in the implementation of government circulars that aimed at improving the sector.
“While some centres have been compliant with the implementation of the circulars and directives in the area of remuneration of doctors, others are yet to comply.
“The Federal Medical Centres (FMC) in Owerri and Umuahia and all state tertiary health institutions in the zone are yet to implement the directives on proper placement of doctors and adjusted entry steps for house officers.
“This had resulted in fractional payment of salaries for doctors in the affected hospitals for several months.”
Udu urged the governors in the zone to prioritise health issues as well as ensure that all outstanding salaries of doctors are settled promptly.
He said that doctors in the zone were  ready to embark on an industrial action if the governments fail to address their needs.
According to him, NARD has issued  a 21-day ultimatum to the government to resolve all demands or face a national industrial action.
“The ultimatum expired on January. 2, we are just waiting for signal from our national leadership to commence the industrial action,” he said.