Skip to main content

JAF Condemns Lagos University Teaching Hospital Decadence

"The teaching hospital is being systematically privatized and treatment is given to only those who can afford to pay exorbitant fees," Aremu said.

The Joint Action Front (JAF) has criticized what it calls poor administration of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), saying the continuous victimization of workers is no longer acceptable.

Secretary of the pro-labor group, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, also criticized the LUTH's Chief Medical Director, Prof. Chris Bode, for being insensitive to the workers' plight, saying the teaching hospital had become a "go-and-die place".

"The teaching hospital is being systematically privatized and treatment is given to only those who can afford to pay exorbitant fees," Aremu said.

"Sometimes, patients are asked to pay N50,000 as a deposit for treatment, a situation that has already condemned them to death," the JAF official added.

Mr. Aremu queried the LUTH's director over the disbursement of grants from the Federal Ministry of Health, alleging criminal diversion of the grants for personal use.

"The hospital has only one functional ultrasound machine and one defibrillator which exist only on display. In addition to this, the workers are demoralized as they have no equipment to work with."

Mr. Aremu also decried victimization of workers who sought improvement in the condition of service, saying two resident doctors had been recently sacked by the LUTH management in the process.

"The sack of both doctors is illegal, unethical and unjust," the JAF secretary charged, stressing: 

"The management should unconditionally reinstate the sacked doctors and quash the policy that makes patients deposit money before getting treatment. We will not allow our hospitals to be privatized the way education and power sectors have been privatized."

The state of Nigerian public hospitals has been a crisis point in recent years, forcing experts and observers to suggest that the government declare a state of emergency in the country's health sector.

In recent weeks, Meningitis Type C which broke out in the northern state of Zamfara has reportedly claimed more than 300 lives, even as about 19 northern states have been put on alert as government battles almost helplessly in tackling the scourge effectively. 

Display in Video Section
On

Topics
VIDEO NEWS