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Taiwo Oluwadare, Ibadan
The resident doctors of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso has called for quick intervention of Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde to save hospital from imminent collapse.
The President of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of the hospital, Dr. Ayobami Alabi made this call at this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the state hospital.
Recall that the health institution has since been complaining of salary shortfall since administration of immediate former governor of the state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. Also, the hospital management is complaining of degrading and obsolete equipments in the hospital which has led to loss of brainy staffs.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the AGM, the ARD president who commended Governor Makinde for the prompt payment of salary by 25th of every month urged him to respond appropriately to their plight before their patience and endurance are eroded.
According to him, all apparently not well about LAUTECH teaching hospital, saying the hospital cannot boast of fulfilling the dream of the founding fathers who set out to establish a world class hospital for teaching, research and services.
He said: “But today what we have is a shadow of reality. Our hospital is poorly funded and this serves as precursor for many of our perennial problems. The remunerations of doctors are far from what the edit of the hospital gazette, we are reduced to second class citizens because we worked in STHI. When you talk today about corrected CONMESS of 2014, it’s like a new nomenclature to my member, our point of entry as a resident is outdated, and this poor salary structure make our hospital not attractive to doctors (both the trainers and resident doctors).
“We are still being owed 24-months’ salary arrears. The sponsorship for training has not been consistent, meagre and haphazard as against what in RTA of 2017 assented by the president of FRN.
“There is a severe shortage of Doctors as well as many clinical staff and professional regularly exit the hospital. If this trend is sustained, this hospital may die and the health of many populations that we serve will be in jeopardy. The specialized care that we offered will be missed, the training of specialists as well as medical doctors will be forgotten,” Alabi stated.
Alabi therefore thanked the management team ably led by the CMD for their response to some of the hospital’s agitations and continuous engagement of ARD executive leadership.
The guest lecturer, Professor Tanimola Akande said governments lack political will to provide enabling environment for effective health care delivery which is exemplified in the low funding of health care.
According to him, tertiary healthcare delivery institutions particularly at the state level suffer so much undue political influence affecting its ability to deliver effective health care delivery.
He added that unlike the federal tertiary health institution, the level of autonomy of the institutions at the state level is very low saying at the institutional level, good clinical leadership and management skills is largely difficult with the political interference in managing State Tertiary healthcare delivery Institutions (STHIs).
He maintained that the poor funding has led to exodus of Nigerian doctors out of the country to seek good working condition and therefore leads to shortfall of doctors in Nigeria.
