Doctors under the umbrella of the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners (NAGGMDP), Ogun State chapter, will commence what it described as "staggered" strike from Monday.
Addressing newsmen over the weekend, are the association's chairman and secretary, Dr. Oladunni Adetola and Dr. Adetonwa Festus respectively, at the Nigeria Medical Association House, Abeokuta, said that the strike became necessary in view of some germane issues affecting the health sector in the state.
The association alleged that there had been drastic shortage of manpower in all the General Hospitals across the state, stressing that the development had affected good healthcare delivery system in the state.
They said that series of letters to call the attention of the authorities concerned to the challenge had not been given adequate attention.
"Our General Hospitals over the years have been experiencing drastic reduction in the number of personnel, this stem from those who retired statutorily to those who left for other institutions where better renumeration is obtainable.
"Imagine, a General Hospital having only a doctor covering it, what is the quality of service expected from such centre. Most of our hospitals have less than half of the personnel they had about seven to eight years back," they said.
The doctors also bemoaned the bad state of health facilities across the state, submitting that several letters had been written and sent to Governor Ibikunle Amosun on the pitiable condition of working environment in the hospitals.
"Only two or three of our General Hospitals can boast of functioning ambulance for emergency services. Roads leading to our hospitals are in bad state.
"The most painful part is that we have tried to bear all these by supporting the system by not embarking on an industrial action rather, seeking dialogue with the government in the last five years, because we felt we should be part of the mission to rebuild our great state, but we are better informed that government does not see us as partner in the laudable mission," they said.
They demanded that government should equip the hospitals for better services for the citizenry and also adequately stocked the pharmacies to prevent people from buying substandard drugs.
The doctors also canvassed for payment of relativities to those that are serving in state owned hospitals.
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