Kwara State journalist’s wife has become one of the victims of the nationwide strike launched by doctors on July 1.
The aggrieved National Trumper correspondent Kehinde Akinpelu narrated to Punch that his 43-year-old wife was admitted to Bowen University Teaching Hospital and then referred to Ilorin for some tests because of the strike. Despite the fact they managed to come back to BUTH with test results, the woman eventually passed away.
The Kwara State Correspondents Chapel in a statement released Friday blamed the strike for the woman’s death:
“If the doctors were on duty at UITH, there wouldn’t have been any reason to be sending this young family back and forth and the precious time wasted travelling between Ogbomosho and Ilorin could have been devoted to saving her life.”
The group urged the government and the medical personnel to end the “unnecessary strike” which causes sufferings of innocent patients. They also criticized the doctors saying that “no welfare package is worth the life of a single patient” and urged them to negotiate for the improvement of their working conditions not at the expense of peoples’ lives.
It would be recalled that two weeks before the strike commencement, doctors all over the country issued an ultimatum urging the government to consider their lingering demands, one of which is the payment issue.
Sources: Naij.com news, Punch Nigeria