ATBUTH resident doctors protest shortage of manpower

Doctors of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi Tuesday staged a protest against the management of the hospital over reported shortage of manpower in the facility. 

The doctors under the aegis of association of Resident Doctors ATBUTH, Bauchi chapter, carried placards with inscriptions such as “ATBUTH increase manpower”, “We want more employment for Resident Doctors”, Federal Ministry of Health come to our Rescue” amongst others.

They demanded that the federal ministry of health should recruit more medical staff saying the existing ones are being overstretched. 

Speaking with journalists during the demonstration, president of the association, Dr Sani Kabril, said the peaceful protest had become imperative in view of the difficult conditions the resident doctors operate in the hospital.

“We have resident doctors that are at the forefront of healthcare delivery at the teaching hospital who are responsible for taking calls every day for two weeks. By taking calls, what ii mean is that the doctor will work from morning to 4pm and continue to 8pm and continue the work trend all over again throughout the entire two weeks”

“Even if it is a machine that is working like that, the machine will one day breakdown. The one doctor to thirty patients’ ratio is not realistic because presently in the hospital, we have one doctor attending to over one hundred patients in a day. It is a very pathetic and unfortunate situation these doctors have found themselves” he said.

The president of the association lamented the acute shortage of manpower at the hospital and appealed to the federal government and other stakeholders in the health sector to come to it rescue as the hospital is a tertiary institution that is saddled with the responsibility of services, research and training.

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