Abuja Resident Doctors’ Strike Forces Consultant to Work 36 Hours

Federal Capital Territory (FCT)’s healthcare system has plunged into an unprecedented crisis as resident doctors in its hospitals continue their indefinite strike.

This has seriously affected medical services and left the skeletal staff of overworked consultants to manage patient loads that have reached catastrophic proportions.

The industrial action, which began on Monday, has created a nightmare scenario in emergency units and wards in hospitals visited by LEADERSHIP.

It was learnt that one doctor now cares for over 50 patients while on duty.

A senior consultant who preferred anonymity said he had been on duty for 36 hours straight, moving between wards with a weariness that seemed to have settled in his bones.

“I have lost count of how many patients I have seen today. We are doing triage without saying we are doing triage. The most critical cases get attention first, while others wait. It is not medicine anymore; it’s crisis management,” he said.

For patients, the reality is terrifying, Chinwe Okonkwo, whose daughter was rushed to one of the FCT hospitals with a severe asthma attack, shares her ordeal, “We have been waiting for four hours. The nurses are kind but overwhelmed.

“They told us there is only one doctor covering the entire children’s emergency ward. My daughter is struggling to breathe, and I don’t know how much longer she can hold on. This strike is killing us,” she said.

In the maternity ward, the situation is equally serious; expectant mothers in labour are being managed by midwives, with doctors only called for emergencies.

“I was supposed to have a cesarean section, but it has been postponed indefinitely. They said the doctors are on strike and the one available is in surgery with a complicated case.

“I have no option but to quickly raise money to go to a private hospital before anything happens to my baby. I am scared for my baby and myself,” she said.

A senior nurse at Kubwa General Hospital who also preferred anonymity said, “If this strike persists, we will see preventable deaths. Not just from the critical cases, but from the domino effect.

“People with manageable conditions will deteriorate without care.

When contacted, a senior official in the FCTA Health Services and Environment Secretariat who preferred anonymity because of the restriction on speaking to the media, said that the minister has heard their doctors’ demands and will take time to address them accordingly when he  returns to Abuja.

The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) downed tools after an emergency congress on Sunday, following months of failed negotiations with the FCT administration.

The doctors demanded immediate action on a litany of grievances, including six months of unpaid salaries, a severe manpower shortage and a backlog of critical allowances.

In an interview, the general secretary of the ARD in the FCTA, Dr Affiong Agbo, detailed the despair and frustration that forced the doctors to take this drastic step.

“We have consistently begged and dialogued for them to be paid, but the government seems unwilling. All we hear is that there is no money in the budget,” Agbo said.

She lamented that doctors employed since 2023 to replace those who had left have not received salaries for up to six months, pushing many to the brink of financial ruin.

With only over 300 doctors to serve millions of residents in the FCT, the workload had become unbearable and dangerously unsafe.

“We are actually overworked. In some hospitals, you see one doctor doing the work of five to 10 doctors. For example, when I am on duty in my hospital, I cover accident and emergency, paediatrics, internal medicine, family medicine, surgery and sometimes obstetrics and gynaecology,” she said.