Covid-19: Doctors In Rivers Go Spiritual

Doctors in Rivers State under the aegis of the Association of Resident Doctors, Rivers State University, RSUTH Branch, and National Association of Government, General Medical and Dental Practitioners, have opted for a spiritual warfare to tackle the new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recently the joint bodies of medical practitioners organised a week-long fasting and prayer programme which ended with a thanksgiving at the Royal House of Grace International Church in Port Harcourt, last Sunday.
Speaking to The Tide during the thanksgiving service, President of the Association of Resident Doctors in RSUTH, Doctor Mathew George Ela, said the fasting and prayer was necessary because of the increasing risk doctors are facing in the course of discharging on their professional duties.
He said , “Doctors in Rivers State decided to seek divine protection against covid-19 and other transmissible deceases.”
Doctor Ela said, the move by the Rivers State Government to upgrade facilities at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital was a justification that the Rivers State Government was committed to the development of the health sector in the State.
Apart from the risk posed by COVID-19, Dr Ela also noted that Doctors were exposed to other institutional challenges, such as insecurity and lack of good incentives to practise. He called for the provision of special insurance policies for doctors in the country.
On his part, the chairman of the National Association of Government, General and Dental Practitioners, doctor Rammyson Keke, said the prayer and fasting programme was to see divine atonement for doctors in the discharge of their duties.
He said, “we doctors are poised to do our job to save lives, but we must be alive to do our jobs; with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are at risk but we believe that only God can protect our lives, we also have a major challenge and that is manpower. We want to appreciate the Rivers State Government for its commitment to the development of the health sector, and we believe the Government will do more in the area of manpower development.
In his homily, the General Overseer of the Royal House of Grace Church, Apostle Zilly Aggrey, commended the doctors for seeking God’s protection. Describing the work of doctors, he called for continuous prayers for them and called on Government at all levels to invest in the health sector to motivate doctors and shelve their mass exodus outside the country for greener pastures.
It could be that doctors all over the country have continuously raised alarm over the increasing danger they have to contend with, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and other transmissible diseases to which they have lost their lives.
A report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) also indicates that doctors will be in short supply particularly in developing societies in the years to come.

By: Taneh Beemene