Resident doctors at the Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), Oghara, Ethiope West local government area have alleged that the state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa is owing them to the tune of N30 million.
The doctors under the platform of the Association of Resident Doctors gave the shocking revelation when they visited Sheriff Oborevwori, the Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly (DTHA), in his office, calling on him to use his good office to prevail on Okowa to pay them the money owned them.
Loading ...They lamented what they called dilapidated state of the health institution, saying that they deemed it urgent and necessary to take their cry straight to the speaker so as to use his office to intervene and save the looming calamity that might result from the current sorry state of the health institution.
The President of the Association, Mr Moses Ekpekpe, who led the team to the Speaker also used the occasion to congratulate the Speaker on his new position and appealed passionately for speedy intervention, adding nature and posterity would not forgive them should they fail to bring to the notice of the house challenges been faced by the teaching hospital.
“Currently, resident doctors are been owed more than 30 million naira. If the Residency programme in DELSUTH is not well planned and not well funded, mediocrity will be the order of the day and a time will come in the future when Delta State will not be able to produce the needed doctors that would take care of our brothers and sisters; the beloved citizens of Delta State. Mr. Speaker we want to appeal to the House of Assembly for its assistance.
“We want the house to use its oversight functions to prevail on the State Government to as matter of importance come to our aide. Mr. Speaker, the residency training programme in DELSUTH is a shadow of itself. It is heart breaking to note that the programme is still rudimentary in the state as most of the necessary requirements are lacking and this has affected DELSUTH and the entire state negatively in several ways.
“The non-accreditation of most departments in DELSUTH posed a psychological effect on the Institution because for a teaching hospital to be fully qualified to train doctors, its various department need to be accredited by the National Post Graduate College and the West Africa Post Graduate College. The lack of accreditation forces resident doctors to go to other institutions and render services to other states.
“Mr. Speaker, just to get trained always come at a cost usually higher than what it will cost our institution to get accredited. It is in the best interest of Delta State to pursue accreditation of the various department aggressively as it will create more rooms for us to offer health care services to Deltans. The present state of the institution is a far cry from what DELSUTH used to be and what Deltans desire.
“All staff of DELSUTH have been working extremely hard to ensure that we are able to give semblance of a sane hospital where Deltans can come and not get trapped and die but get an opportunity to survive. The operating theatres are under equipped, the accident and emergency theartre, the labour ward theatres are not being utilized due to under equipment and understaffing. Infrastructural decay and unavailability of work equipment are a reality in DELSUTH.
“There is only one sub-optimal patient monitor shared by the children and adult emergency rooms. Absence of ward cosumables and stationery makes our work cumbersome. Poor power supply to the administrative building and residential quarters poses a security threat to the Doctors to move at night to help Deltans. Limited bed spaces and abandoned projects litter the breadth and length of the Institution especially the trauma centre which has remained at its foundation level for years.
In his response, Oborevwori, thanked the resident doctors for the visit and assured the intervention of the house either through budgetary or other ways that may be advised by the committee adding that as soon as the house constitutes the new committees, the contending issues will be forwarded to the appropriate committee.
