University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital doctors use candle lights, torch to perform surgeries – ARD President

Foremost teaching hospital in the south-east geopolitical zone, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital,UNTH,Ituku-Ozalla,Enugu State,weekend, was described as a facility where simple ailments transmute to complex diseases. This is made known by the Association of Resident Doctors,ARDs which also regretted the complete collapse of the hospital management which resulted in carrying out surgeries with torch and candle lights following dysfunctional generator sets dotting the hospital.

Addressing a press conference, weekend at the ARD Common Room at UNTH, President, Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Ifedinso Ugwuoke explained that the association having exhausted all reasonable avenues to salvage the rot in the tertiary hospital, decided to shut down medical services. It also accused the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Christopher Amah of refusing to implement a written and signed agreement with Ref No: UNTH/CMD/R98C/Vol.204 dated September 15,2015 to pay resident doctors their skipping allowance as approved by the Head of Service to the Federation which other teaching hospitals in the south-east geopolitical zones are paying in full.

“We have decided to embark on an indefinite strike over the entire failure in the system. The aim for which this tertiary hospital was established which is service, research and training have failed totally. UNTH being on strike is better. The hospital has been turned to a money collecting centre where patients are made to pay for oxygen when they did not use same.

“In times of emergency, common investigations like HB, CT scan,blood banks tests cannot be done in the hospital. Patients are made to travel 20km to private hospitals in the metropolis to do these tests which compound a simple ailment to a complex one. In most cases,the patients die as a result.

“We carry out surgeries with torch and candle lights following power failure and dysfunctional generators. It is only the poorest of the poor that now come to UNTH as a last resort. Patients are made to pay above Federal Government approved rates for receiving no services from the hospital. The public have since known that they cannot access quality medicare in UNTH which used to serve the entire south-east geopolitical zone.

“The sanitary condition of the hospital where doctors perform consultation and diagnosis has made it a recipe for contagious diseases. There is no running water in the entire UNTH. That is why the Paediatrics Department has now lost its accreditation. Patients and visitors draw water from a well that is over 20 years. Water from that well is horrible to human health. That is why we say that a UNTH that is on strike is better than a UNTH that is not on strike”.