The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in Edo had issued 21- day ultimatum to the state government to address the infrastructure decay, environment and poor condition of service in its Hospital Management Board.
The NMA Chairman, Dr Emmanuel Ighodaro, announced the ultimatum at a press conference in Benin on Tuesday.
Ighodaro said that doctors in the state would be called out for an industrial action if the government failed to heed the call.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the strike notice by the doctors was coming barely 48 hours after the national leadership of the NMA suspended its planned nationwide strike.
He said many factors were mitigating against qualitative health care delivery in the state, noting that the situation was frustrating the efforts of doctors in providing quality services to citizens.
Ighodaro, who decried the poor conditions in health facilities, said that only 150 doctors were attending to patients in overcrowded public hospitals in the state, which lacked basic facilities.
“We have made several presentations and representations to the state government at different fora on the decay of health infrastructure, work environment and poor condition of service.
“But the government has not shown any convincing commitment at addressing the myriad of problems confronting the health sector in the state,” he said.
Ighodaro alleged that sed government of displaying “high level insensitivity to the health burden and sufferings of Edo people due to the poor state of health facilities in the state”.
He particularly said that medical services at the Central Hospital and Stella Obasanjo Women and Children Hospital, both in Benin, and other major state-owned public health facilities had dwindled.
He also deplored what he described as “multiple taxation’’ of private health facilities in the state.
The NMA chairman said the policy had resulted in incessant harassment of owners of the facilities by “legal and illegal agents’’ of the government. (NAN)
Comments