The doctors under the aegis of National Association of Government General and Medical Dental Practitioners, who had been on strike for over three weeks, said something urgent needed to be done to save the situation.
Medical doctors in Ekiti have accused the state government of making their professions unattractive to fresh graduates and health professionals, who were now leaving the state to seek greener pastures elsewhere over the non-payment of their benefits.
The doctors under the aegis of National Association of Government General and Medical Dental Practitioners, who had been on strike for over three weeks, said something urgent needed to be done to save the situation.
Chairman of the NAGGMDP in Ekiti, Dr Kolawole Adeniyi, accused the government of not being sensitive to the plight of the medical practitioners in the public hospitals across the state despite their agitation for an improvement on their welfare but the government failed to respond to their demands.
He said, "So, the doctors were left with no other option than to embark on the industrial action due to the government's failure to respond to our demands.
“Five of the general hospitals in the state have only one doctor each while the three specialist hospitals have a total of six and seven medical doctors respectively and out of 20 doctors employed in December 2015, only five are left.
“While out of another set of 20 doctors employed in 2018, six are left and out of 20 specialists, I mean the consultants employed cumulatively since only five are left and many more are only waiting for opportunities to leave.”
He listed the demands of the striking doctors to include proper placement for doctors with full promotion benefits, hazard allowance, rural posting allowance, and consequential adjustment on new minimum wage among others.
While expressing concerns over what he called the deplorable condition of primary and secondary health facilities in the state, Adeniyi noted that the health insurance scheme recently launched by Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti cannot achieve any desirable result without a well-motivated medical workforce and adequately equipped facilities.