The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, has said its resolve to embark on a three-day warning strike was informed by an alleged assault on one of its members by a relative of a patient in their facility.
Resident doctors at the health institution, under the aegis of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), began a three-day warning strike on Thursday.
In a statement by the chairperson and secretary of the UCH ARD, John Oladapo and Sunday Adegbite, respectively, on Thursday, the association maintained that assault on any of its members will no longer be tolerated.
The association also demanded a public apology published in two major national newspapers as part of the conditions to be met before the suspension of the three-day industrial action.
The doctors demanded that the security architecture of the UCH be improved to guarantee the safety of its members against any form of threat to their lives.
“On Sunday, one of our members was the target of a deliberate, premeditated rage and furious assault by a patient’s relation. The doctor was seeing a known sickle cell patient in a painful crisis at the emergency department when two men accosted him in the consulting room and started beating him up.
READ ALSO: UCH doctors suspend strike
“The mother of the patient being seen, who tried to intervene, was also beaten up in the assault. In the doctor’s attempt to escape, the men chased him down and beat him up. The security officers of the hospital intervened and rescued our member, but not before he sustained injuries to his body, as well as mental health and esteem,” the statement read.
The doctors said that the assailants, who are friends to the father of a patient who died on Saturday, were awaiting the deceased’s death certificate to be written while settling outstanding bills.
“Our member, who received a call from the emergency department concerning another sickle cell patient, explained the emergency to the patient’s father, obtained his permission to save the living and attend to the death certificate later.
“However, the assailants were enraged and said the doctor was wasting their time and attacked him,” the statement added.
Support PREMIUM TIMES’ journalism of integrity and credibility
Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.
For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.
By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.
TEXT AD: Call Willie – +2348098788999
