Reactions As Nurse Locks Doctor Up At Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (Video)

The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), Ile-Ife, has concluded plans to go on strike over what they termed recurrent harassment of doctors at the hospital.

The doctors held a meeting and resolved to embark on a 48-hour warning strike starting from 8 am on Tuesday, June 21 to Thursday, June 23, 2022.

The doctors made their decision known in a release on Monday signed by Drs Nana Fayowole, president; Anuforo Anthony, General Secretary, and Olasubomi Adelaja, Public Relations Officer, all of ARD at the hospital.

Narrating an incident that led to the decision, they wrote: “It is with great displeasure that I stand before you at this trying time in our profession, where a series of despicable incidents threatens the survival of this noble profession. I express with dismay the rising cases of workplace assault on doctors in this hospital, in which one most recently involved a female medical house officer.”

The resident doctors alleged that “On Thursday 16th of June 2022, a female doctor was forcefully held hostage, confined and verbally assaulted while discharging her duty, by a Senior Nurse in the Female Adult Orthopedic ward (FAOW).

“The female house officer had gone to the said ward with her team which included different cadres of doctors, to carry out a procedure (central line placement) on the only patient in the ward at that time.

“The team on arrival at 4:30pm informed the nurse on duty.

“After the procedure, the team discarded appropriately all sharps used. They wrapped the empty kit with the drape used and kept on the lowest shelf of the trolley and wiped the topmost part of the trolley clean and moved the trolley away from the patient’s bedside.

“They proceeded to document for the patient and were leaving the ward when the house officer was accosted that she should go and discard the waste. The house officer was the last to leave so the nurse went to block her way asking her to go back and discard the waste and when she didn’t answer, the matron locked the gate with the padlock.

“As if that wasn’t enough, she started shouting and rained a lot of insults on her to the extent that nurses from other wards came to plead with her to stop and open the gate but she refused. One of the other nurses even offered to bring her attendant to come and help with the waste but she declined.

“Despite several pleas, the nurse vowed never to let the doctor out no matter who comes from Abuja. We have the video evidence of this incident. It took the effort of many people (staff and passersby) to persuade the nurse to release the doctor.

“This is a totally unfortunate and unacceptable occurrence.”

They demanded that the hospital management should institute a fact-finding committee to look into the incident and appropriate disciplinary measures meted against whoever is found culpable, failure of which the house will re-examine the situation at their meeting in July.