Prof. Jesse Otegbayo: UCH CMD

By Oluwabukola Akanni

The Association of Residents Doctors, University College Hospital, Ibadan, has faulted the hospital’s Chief Medical Director’s allegation that its members were playing politics with the ongoing strike.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that resident doctors of the hospital had on May 1 embarked on an indefinite strike over non-payment of salaries and non-enrolment of some members on the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS).

Otegbayo had on Friday said the doctors had refused to call off the indefinite strike despite management’s plea and intervention of stakeholders, adding that the residents doctors were playing politics with the strike.

Addressing a news conference on Sunday in Ibadan, the President of the Association, Dr Temitope Hussein, said its members were not playing politics as alleged by the CMD, but only demanding their rights.

He said that life had been unbearable for some of its members due to the five month salaries owed them by the tertiary institution.

“We initially embarked on a five-day warning strike that lasted from the 15th to 20th of March.

“We also joined the national body for a strike that lasted from the 1st April to the 12th of April.

“These actions are not borne out of a desire to play politics but genuine intention to get what is rightly ours.

“215 resident doctors of the University College Hospital have not been paid for five months.

” One month salary was just paid recently during this strike of ours and even some of them were still left out.

“These are men and women with responsibilities who had laboured hard in the hospital in performing their duties in different departments and units.

“Some of them contracted COVIDo-19 during the course of their duties and they had to get medication themselves to treat it,” Hussein said.

The ARD-UCH president also urged that the 215 doctors affected should be enrolled on the IPPS platform, so that these issues do not become recurrent.

“We are not asking for much; we are only asking for what is rightly ours. We seek the attention of the relevant authorities because we desire industrial harmony.

“We also seek the attention of the general public to understand our plight that we are not interested in playing politics but in meeting our demands.

“Doctors who are being owed salaries should be paid and enrolled on Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) platform,” he said.

Hussein appealed to the federal government and the UCH management to get the issue of non-payment of salaries resolved.

“We were employed by the UCH, which is a teaching hospital under the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“We are also not interested in whose fault it is, whether it is the Federal Government or the hospital.

“What we are simply saying is that doctors who have worked should be paid their emoluments,” he said. (NAN)