Medical interns at UCTH protest non-payment of salaries

Over 100 medical interns at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital have protested the refusal to pay their salaries for six months by the management of the facility.

They have alleged that the hospital had since collected their allocation from the federal government and invested it without caring about their welfare.

The protesting interns included nursing scientists, medical lab scientists, pharmacists, dental therapists, radiologists, physiotherapists, among others.

Spokesman for the protesting interns, Dr Ifeanyi Kennedy, said they were owed six months and have been to the chief medical officer of the facility, Prof Ikpeme Ikpeme, but he has never listened to or addressed them.

“Our counterparts in the teaching hospitals in Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi states have all received more than 70% of what they were owed but here in Calabar, nothing is forthcoming. We owe our landlords, food creditors, other bills,” he said.

The CMD Ikpeme, who was attending a thanksgiving service in the church adjacent to the Accident and Emergency ward of the school, told journalists that the problem is a national one, adding that the school has written to the authorities and is working to resolve the issue.