Patients Groan As JOHESU Continues Warning Strike

The seven-day warning strike by the Joint Health Workers Unions (JOHESU) is currently raging at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. Patients are appealing to the government to negotiate with the Health Workers to end the strike.

The patients appealed while speaking with newsmen at the Hospital.

The patients, including Mr Matthew Ademola and Madam Aina Balogun, who spoke at separate interviews, said they couldn’t get medical attention at the diagnosis centres as medical laboratory workers were not on the ground to attend to them.

It was observed that the entrance gates to some wards in the hospital were shut as a result of the strike action.

Chairman of Joint Health Sector Unions, UCH, Mr Oladayo Olabampe, said the strike was only observed in federal health institutions.

Olabampe pointed out that their demands included the immediate upward review of CONHESS salary as it was done to CONMESS in 2014, tax waiver on allowance, and upward review of the retirement age of health workers to 65 years and 70 years for consultants, among others.

Olabampe, the chairman of the Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals in Oyo State, noted that their demands were long overdue. The union would embark on an indefinite strike if the government failed to respond.

The Seven-day warning strike commenced on Saturday last week.