Nigerian Doctors Strike: Patients In Ondo Hospitals Cry Out For Doctors

Mrs. Johnson on hospital bed in Ondo

The nationwide industrial action by the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in support of their demands has resulted in crippled services in government hospitals in Ondo State. 


Many of the hospitals have been deserted by doctors with needy patients left in distress.

At the State Specialist Hospital in Akure, activities were at their lowest ebb, with the environment deserted, and no medical doctors available.  Nurses were however at work to give assistance to patients whose condition warranted their attention.

Deserted hospital wards in Ondo state

The over-populated wards of the hospital which normally enjoys the heavy presence of doctors however had other health workers available to in-patients the conditions of whom are really bad.
The Accident and Emergency (A and E) units of the hospital, which also treats emergency cases, were also deserted.

The male ward was empty, with nurses busy sorting out pending files.  In the female surgical wards, a few patients listed in critical condition were on their beds sleeping.
Senior Nurses could be seen in the Children Surgical wards of the hospital attending to the children with care; some were being bathed.

At the General hospital in Okitipupa, patients who had decided to check our told our correspondents that they were going home and hoped to live on their medications pending the end of the strike.
Nurses at the hospital disclosed that they were overburdened, and had had to advice patients to leave the hospital wards in their own interest.
Any emergency cases, they disclosed, would probably be referred to private hospitals if they were beyond their capacity to handle.

At the Ikare Akoko General hospital, nurses were managing the few patients in the wards. They were administering drugs to in-patients when SaharaReporters’ roving correspondents visited the hospital.
The nurses confirmed they were only attending to in-patients, and that new patients were being prevented from obtaining hospital cards for treatment.
At Ido Ani government hospital, no doctor was available.  Some patients were seen pleading with nurses to give them drugs. Read more here

Source:Sahara Reporters, New York