Members of Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) branch Monday protested against management’s plans to privatise and commercialise the diagnostic section of the hospital.
Accordingly, the union Monday declared a-three day sit-down strike to force management rescind its decision.
Some of the protesters wielded placards that read: ‘Don’t add to the suffering of the masses. We say no to privatization,’ ‘we are against privatization. Labour is against privatization,’ privatization is tantamount to mismanagement of public health,’ ‘start commercialisation from the theatre not from diagnostic and radiology.
Addressing his members in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital UITH NUAHP chair, Olatunde Oluwawumi, said members would be in the office without attending to any patient.
Comrade Oluwawumi said: “Despite all persuasions, the UITH management is hell on toeing this path of commercialization and privatization of a section of the diagnostic department of our organization without considering the consequences. We are concerned as professional union; we are concerned as bona fide staff of UITH; we are concerned as members of Ilorin community.
We wonder, we brainstorm on what benefits this ill-advised move of the management of UITH will bring to the innocent people of Kwara state and environs. The truth is management has been deliberately killing the radiology department especially the unit belonging to the images scientists for private to thrive because of their own selfish reasons by their refusal to respond to several memos written to the management when the five years equipment maintenance agreement signed by the federal government with Famed company expired August 2013 and also by their refusal to respond to several memos written by the technical head reporting the breakdown of the equipment in radiology department. Up till date there is no record of preventive maintenance of the equipment in the department of radiology.
We are professional union and bona fide staff of UITH here call on the general public especially the people of Kwara state to rise up and join us to outrightly resist and reject this unprofitable idea of the management of UITH of privatization and commercialization as this idea will achieve nothing positive but will: take healthcare services out of the reach of the masses because private only exists for profit making; this is against the pronouncement of President Muhammadu Buhari on privatization and commercialization of health services in whatever guise.
This idea of privatization will prevent the images department especially the sons and daughters of Kwara state from getting jobs even when the federal government is making efforts to create jobs for Nigerian graduates; there will be no place of training for images scientists, radiographers and the students of images scientists from the University of Ilorin; there will be no record of internally generated revenue (IGR) from the radiology department as the profit will be shared on percentage between the private company and management.
The union therefore implores the management to shelf this idea of privatization completely and repair all the faulty equipment in radiology in the interest of patients. Failure to do that the union will use all legal means to resist privatization in UITH. The union is also using the opportunity to appeal to management to buy current equipment into all the services areas of the hospital.
I am using this opportunity also to call on the federal government to accede to all the demands of JOHESU and put a stop to the crisis in the health sector. Crisis in the health sector is as a result of the failure of leadership.
Source: TheNation, HWN Africa.
: 2016-04-18 16:30:20 | : 1391