UCH resident doctors embark on strike

Members of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, yesterday began a three-day warning strike over an assault on one of them by a patient’s relation.

The President and Vice-President of ARD-UCH Ibadan, Dr. John Oladapo and Dr. Sunday Adegbite, in a statement said they were demanding a public apology in two widely-read national dailies.

They also said there must be, in addition, an admission of wrongdoing by the assailants.

The association’s members equally demanded that the security architecture of the hospital be improved.

“On Sunday, one of our members was the target of a deliberate, premeditated, planned rage and furious assault by a patient’s relation.

“The doctor was seeing a known Sickle Cell patient in painful crisis at the Emergency Department when the two men accosted him in the consulting room and started beating him up.

“The mother of the patient being seen who tried to intervene was also beaten up in this assault.

“In the doctor’s attempt to escape, the men chased him down and beat him up.

“The security officers of the hospital intervened and rescued our member, but not before he sustained injuries as well as mental health and esteem.”