From Austine Tule, Makurdi
President, Association of Resident Doctors Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Chapter Dr. Onyewuchi Amina Japheth, on Wednesday again insisted that 30 of its members were sacked by the Hospital managment and issued letters to that effect .
The body which stated this while reacting to a denial by the management through a press statment on Tuseday said the statement from the managment was nothing but a tissue of lies with the aim to twist facts as regarding the illegal act it commited.
The Resident Doctors had on Monday this week raised an alarm over the sack of over 30 of its members over reasons they held grossly violated their terms of pratice.
But the the Hospital managmemt through a press statement Tuesday was quoted to have refuted the claim by the doctors of any illegal sack.
According the statement from the doctors Wednesday, ” we came across a press release by the management of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi which was signed by Mr Cephas Hough, the deputy director, head of public relations of the hospital, and we will like to clear some of the issues raised.
” The management said they have not sacked 30 Resident doctors, claiming only three doctors were terminated. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The management gave sack letters to over 30 Resident doctors, 32 of which are still hanging around. In the letters (which we have and you can see for yourselves), they specified a date beyond which the doctor could only apply to work on locum basis with either six months or one year extensions.
” In that same press release, the management claimed to have been, since 2012, using a Residency Training Policy that required resident doctors passed all their exams within six years of training. However the true situation on ground is that from 2012 till date, the management of this hospital has issued appointment letters with conflicting contents to Residents doctors undergoing the same training.”
The statement explained that on 18th July 2014, owing to the fact that different institutions were using different standards for their Residency Training, the Federal Ministry of Health released a circular to all Chief Medical Directors in the country including that of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, specifying what the terms of employment of a Resident doctors should be.
It explained further that the circular which was signed by the then Minister of State for Health, Dr Khakiru Alhassan, contained a template of the employment letters for Resident doctors and insisted that there was no mention of 6 years as duration for Residency Training but stressed it was based on time from the date of eligiblity to sit for exams.
” It will interest you to know that, there after, Resident doctors who were employed were given letters with no mention of duration of Residency as obtained in the circular from the FMOH. It was until later, that the management reverted back to the system they deemed fit.
” The management also said they were using the hospitals Residency Training Policy instead of the 2017 Medical Residency Training Act and this is just preposterous. Residency Training is not a state affair, neither is it regulated by individual hospitals.”
