Benue Varsity Hospital Sacks Over 30 Doctors Amidst Covid -19 Pandemic

By JOHNSON BABAJIDE

30 medical doctors disengaged by the management of Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) have displayed their sack letters and are thereby calling on the Benue State government to intervene.

At the press briefing held in Makurdi, the resident doctors, however, called on the state governor, Samuel Ortom to intervene on the matter.

According to the state president of the association of resident doctors in the institution, Dr Onyewuchi Amina Japhet, said that display of their sack letters was to show the public that the hospital management lied when it said that three medical doctors were affected.

The association chairman said that 32 of their members were laid off by the management unjustly, saying that the sack was done in bad faith and not in accordance with the laws regulating Residency Training in Nigeria.

She dispelled the statement of the hospital management for saying they had not domesticated the Residency Training law in the hospital, hence their actions which were based on the hospital policy.

“The Medical Residency Training Act (MRTA) was passed by the national assembly in 2017. A year later, it was signed into law by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mohammadu Buhari.

“The Act regulates Residency Training in institutions anywhere in Nigeria and Benue State University Teaching Hospital is in Nigeria and ought to abide by the law”.

“I, therefore, call on the Benue State Governor, Dr Samuel Ortom to intervene in order to avert a further crisis in the health sector of the state,” Dr Onyewuchi stressed. (Text, excluding headline, courtesy of Nigerian Tribune)