Residents of Jos, the Plateau State capital, have appealed to the federal government to return to the negotiating table with members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors.
The residents who spoke to Daily Trust on Monday on the plight of patients in the state said the situation at the government health institution was worrisome.
The resident doctors had embarked on an indefinite industrial action in July following what they described as the failure of the Nigerian government to meet their demands.
After the declaration of the infinite strike, residents said services at the Jos University Teaching Hospital have become skeleton with only consultants and nurses attending to patients, adding that in the absence of the resident doctors, the workload was too much for the consultants and the nurses to handle.
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Lola Bello, a resident said “As a resident, I feel that the government should try and reach a truce on whatever demand that they want. Health, they said, is wealth.”
Richard Jonah, another resident said “People are already in a dire situation at the moment. Going to the private hospital will still create more problems for the residents of the state. I call on the doctors to find some level of compromise to come back to their duties.”
For Marie -Therese Nanlong, “The implication of the strike action cannot be over emphasised. Patients are being discharged. I know things are very hard, but if politicians would have a way to meet the needs of these people, let them do it.”
Daily Trust reports that the Association of the Resident Doctors on Saturday announced plans to commence a daily peaceful protest from Wednesday if the federal government fails to meet its demands.
