Chief Medical Director, COOUTH, Amaku Awka may be sacked

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Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH)

—as fear grips Anambra residents, as consultants doctors begin Strike

The Chief Medical Director, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Amaku, Awka, Anambra state, Dr Basil Nwankwo, may be sacked to appease the Medical consultants of the University threatening to begin an indefinite strike Tuesday.

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH)
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH)


His sack may probably appease the Consultants, but is Governor Willie Obiano willing to sacrifice the COOUH Boss for better negotiation with the consultants?


This is following the alleged consensus among the Medical Consultants and even Resident doctors  that the Medical Director is highhanded and has no interest of the hospital at heart.  But, no one was willing to speak on it in print. They prefer off record, hence the medical director is still being accused.


Already, there is palpable fear in the State, following plans by Medical consultants at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH) to proceed on an indefinite industrial action on Tuesday over poor remuneration.


The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria MDCAN, has consequently given the state governor, Chief Willie Obiano up to Tuesday to address the situation or face the consequences.


The doctors want the state government to keep them at par with their colleagues in other states, stating that what they receive as salary in Anambra is ridiculous.

Chairman of MDCAN, Dr Chukwudi Okani, last week said,  they suspended their last strike on July 8, based on the promise of the state government to resolve their grievances but nothing was done.

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 He said their poor remuneration had become unbearable to them, adding that the committee set up by the governor on the issue had failed to live up to its obligations.


Okani, said if at the end of Tuesday the state government fails to address their plight, they would have no other option than to proceed on indefinite industrial action.


Contributing, the immediate past chairman of the association, Dr Amechi Nwachukwu, said they decided to raise the alarm because when the time comes, many people are likely to die and patients would suffer.


“The governor was so decisive in ending the last strike of which he set up a committee, but four months after, the committee has not submitted the template.


“We are raising the alarm for Obiano to intervene. We don’t want patients to die needlessly. We are not asking for increment but to keep us at par with our colleagues in other states. What we receive in Anambra is too poor “he said.
He said, “You will recall that on 8th July 2019, we suspended our strike after the state government reached out to us, and showed willingness to meet our demands.


“We constituted a committee that will harmonise our demands. We are disappointed that four months after, nothing has been done to address our yearnings.

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“We are the least paid medical consultants in the entire country, and following our yearnings, the committee set up by the government to look into our plight adopted a template from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital.


“Up till now, nothing has been done. We do not want to go on strike because we know that people will die if we do, but at the same time we cannot continue to live under this present condition, because our pay is nothing to write home about.


“Governor Obiano has until Tuesday next week to do the right thing, else, we may not guarantee industrial action. And once we go to strike, we will not return until we see alerts on our phones, and we know that people will die.”


Reacting, Governor Willie Obiano dismissed the doctors’ threat and described it as unnecessary.


The state government urged the doctors to allow the process already started to resolve the crisis to come to a logical conclusion.


The reaction of the government was contained in a statement on Friday in Awka, by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. Don Adinuba.


According to Adinuba, “the committee was scheduled to hold its final meeting, before sending its report to the governor for consideration.
“Officers of the doctors were informed accordingly. It is, therefore, surprising that while the meeting was going on, the association’s officials decided to hold a press conference in Awka where they threatened to go on a one-week warning strike if their demands were not met immediately”

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“Most members of the public are convinced that the press conference was a mere attempt to stampede the committee to accept uncritically its demands and recommend them to the governor for immediate implementation.
“Neither the news conference nor the threat was necessary. Both the government and the doctors are basically on the same page.”


 “Governor Obiano has accepted that the state of affairs at the state teaching hospital is not good enough. He has directed that all doctors, and not just those doing their residency work there, who have not enjoyed any promotion in the last seven years be promoted subject to the required process.


“The failure to promote them all these long years has to do with the absence of conditions of service in the hospital. To rectify this error and ensure it never reoccurs, a committee of COOUTH senior staff was set up to work out how it could be done and the board approved it. The governor has graciously accepted it, too. The implementation will start soon.”

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