Give Employment Waiver To FTH Lokoja; Resident Doctors beg Health Minister

By Obansa Ibrahim , Lokoja

Some resident doctors at Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja (FTHL), have made passionate appeal to the Minister of Health, Prof. Ali Pate to give waiver to the hospital management to employ permanent doctors due to lingering casualisation of doctors.

The doctors expressed great displeasure over the continued casualisation and victimisation of resident doctors by the management of the hospital led by its Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr Olatunde Alabi.

A total of eight doctors from different departments at the hospital, who spoke to our Reporter on condition of anonymity because of fear of victimisation,, lamented that there had been no permanent employment of resident doctors at FTHLokoja since 2012.

They noted that the FTHL CMD has continually insisted that the Health Minister has refused to give the hospital waiver to migrate their staff on locum into IPPIS platform, stressing that the process of getting a waiver is cumbersome.

The doctors emphasised that the CMD on several occasions had reiterated that the strict process of employing new staff put in place by the federal government was hindering the replacement of those who have left the hospital.

The doctors decried the gross shortage of manpower and its adverse effects on the patients at the hospital, and appeal for urgent intervention by President Bola Tinubu.

According to them, issues affecting doctors at FTH Lokoja include: gross shortage of resident doctors across various departments, casualization, excess workloads, victimizations, non payment of salaries arrears, and epileptic power water supply.

Others are: Suspension of residency training program, denial of medical officers with primaries in-house training, poor accommodations, poor call meal supplies, non-availability of essential drugs in the hospital especially A/E pharmacy, among others.

They accused FTHLOkoja management of operating the hospital on casualisation where resident doctors are placed on “Locum”, and renew their employment every two months, without pension and other benefits.

The doctors stressed that the locum being practiced by FTHLokoja management for over 12 years, had led to mass exodus of doctors from the hospital which they described as “Internal brain-drain”.

They emphasised that the mass exodus of doctors has rendered the hospital to be grossly short staffed with negative attendant effects on patients, resulting to excess workloads, negligence and avoidable loss of lives at the federal teaching hospital from time to time.

The doctors disclosed that between 2020 and 2024, over 96 doctors have left the hospital to seek greener pasture elsewhere due to the locum employment that the FTH Lokoja has adopted.

“Locum in the sense that every doctor will carry paper to go and be renewing his/her employment every two months, but our colleagues in other places are giving permanent pensionable employment.

“So, if you are in that category of doctors, what will you do? You will definitely leave. And that is why doctors are leaving the hospital from time to time.

“We have a total of 190 resident doctors in year 2020, but the figure has dropped drastically to only 94 to run a hospital that receive an average of 5000 patients weekly.

“Presently, we have 50 residents doctors, 44 Medical officers making a total of 94 doctors who see an overwhelming number of 5,000 patient in a week.

“Of the 94 doctors, 64 are on IPPIS, while 30 doctors are on GIFMIS called locum. And out of 50 resident doctors, 41 are Senior registrars, and nine Registrars,” a male doctor said.

He stressed that the figures had even reduced to 82 doctors in the last three months, restating that the last time the management of FTH Lokoja recruited resident doctors was in 2012.

Another doctor told our reporter that FTHLokoja management had been given excuses of not being given waiver by the federal government to employ permanent doctors, but described the claim as untrue.

He said: “The waiver given by the federal government is required that the hospital will go and defend their staff strength or nominal role to proof that the hospital is truly short staffed.

“After the nominal role defense, if the federal government see that your hospital is truly short staffed, then the federal government will speed up your waiver for new employment.

“But the management of FTHLokoja deliberately refused to go for nominal role defense because they don’t want the federal government to know their real number of staff because there is corruption and maladministration somewhere.

“The waiver that was given by federal government to FTH Lokoja in 2022 to employ resident doctors were diverted to employ non doctors, and that is maladministration. One of the CMDs that did the same thing in Abuja was suspended.

“So, it is not that the federal government has not given waiver to FTHLokoja as the management purportedly claimed but they have deliberately refused to go for nominal role defense that would speed up their waiver.

“That is why the doctors that were employed on locum since 2012 are now leaving the hospital to get permanent and pensionable employment in a better place.

“Doctors are leaving FTHLokoja on daily basis not because of the popular ‘Japa syndrome’, but internal braindrain,” he said.

The doctors also decried the excess workloads and its adverse effect, which the hospital management has refused to address despite several complaints and appeals by the leadership of the Association of Residents Doctors (ARD).

According to them, the excess workload varies across the departments: Only two to three doctors see above 300 patients daily in GOPD.

“Only three to four doctors cover see over 150 cases daily in MOPD, while only one resident does cover suites 1, 2, 3 of theatre, takes emergency and cover ICU.

“In some departments, only one senior registrar or registrar has been taking calls for months” a doctor said.

“Imagine, the A/E has 8 bed capacity inside and the rest patients are admitted outside A/E with 10 bed spaces. Sometimes patient are even admitted on the floor.

“There are no availability of essential drugs and consumables in A/E as well as functional generator, and no central oxygen supply to each patient bed.

“I can tell you if anybody should mistakenly have an accident and they bring such person to FTHL, your chances of dying is weigh higher than survival.

“You can go and confirm all these by yourself as a journalist,” the doctor lamented.

A female doctor also accused the management of the hospital for unilaterally suspending the Residency Training Act of the National Assembly at the hospital since August 23, 2024.

According to her, the Residency Training Act is meant to train and retrain doctors to ensure continued efficient delivery, but was jettisoned by FTH Lokoja management as part of victimisation of doctors.

The female doctor lamented the recent death of one of the female Ward Attendants at the hospital to lack of electricity.

According to them, the central generator that ought to power the entire hospital was no longer functional, the situation that had made individual department to result to self help in getting electricity supply incase of power failure.

They doctors further claimed that the FTHLokoja management was providing poor and uneatable call foods, which they said its supplies to doctors had been stopped since March 2024.

The doctors insisted that all attempts by the various unions of the hospital staff to get the the FTHLokoja management to address the mirage of issues affecting the staff and patients, proved abortive.

Rather, they said the management has consistently insisted that “They are not forcing anybody to stay and that whoever is tired of being on locum should can resigns and go”.

There is also demonic Victimization of doctors which has seen Doctors demoted, suspended indefinitely, denied signature for examination, denied annual leave once you speak on the ills and decay in the system. The hospital is now being referred to by many as doctors slave camp.

The doctors stressed that FTHLokoja management has deliberately sabotaged the President’s Tinubu’s agenda of ensuring quality healthcare service delivery to Nigerians especially at the federal tertiary health institutions.

They, therefore appealed to President Tinubu through the Minister of Health, Prof. Ali Pate, to set up a committee to conduct thorough investigation into all the allegations against the management of FTHLokoja, so as to rescue the tertiary institutions from total collapse, and restore its lost glory.

Meanwhile, the CMD of FTHLokoja, Dr. Olatunde Alabi, in a chat with journalists recently in his office, also identified inadequate staffing and a lack of critical equipment as challenges impeding operations at the tertiary health center, despite having over 80 consultants.

The CMD noted that the exit of some experienced staff from the hospital was due to the popular ‘Japa Syndrome’ is a major cause of the staff shortage.

Alabi further noted that the strict process of hiring new staff was also hindering the replacement of those who have left the hospital.

The CMD stressed that some staff preferred to breach their bond and travel abroad, which he stated has become a common trend.

He said that the Federal government had refused to give the hospital waiver to migrate their staff on locum into IPPIS platform, stressing that getting a waiver is a cumbersome process.

He stressed that there was no timeline as regards when will the hospital get a waiver to migrate our members into IPPIS.