By Umar Bayo Abdulwahab
Ilorin
The two-week-old industrial action embarked upon by the Joint Health Staff Union (JOHESU) had claimed the lives of three patients on admission at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).
A relative of a patient on admission, Mrs. Dupe Adeleke, said doctors could not perform surgery on patients because surgical equipment needed for the procedure had been allegedly locked up by the striking health workers.
“My mother is due for an operation but the doctors have not been able to perform the surgery because they claimed that the striking health workers have locked up the equipment.
Another patient, who simply identified himself as Sulyman, said he had not been able to get treatment after undergone surgery owing to the strike action embarked upon by the health workers.
“I had surgery before the strike began but now there is no one to attend to me. For my X-ray, I had to go to a private diagnostic centre and paid exorbitant fee for the service,” he lamented.
Blueprint gathered that the UITH as at Friday last week had recorded the death of no fewer than three patients, while other patients on admission at the hospital were said to have been abandoned to their fate.
The Public Relations Officer of UITH, Mr. Oba Kadiri, who confirmed the deaths of three patients on admission, described the situation which led to their death as “unfortunate.”
He decried the locking up of vital areas in the hospital by the striking workers; an action, he noted, was endangering the lives of patients.
Health workers nationwide under the aegis of JOHESU had embarked on indefinite strike over federal government’s failure to meet their demands which include; non-skipping of consolidated health salary scale, CONHESS 10, call shift and other professional allowances among others.