The situation is dicey at the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri. Patients are gasping for breath while health workers protest the plan to privatise the hospital. OKODILI NDIDI reports
The Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, seems to have become one huge facility housing disgruntled, workers. Members of various Labour unions have since laid down their tools and taken up banners of battle against the hospital management over plans to privatise the facility.
Patients, denied medical care, are suffering. Those in intensive care are harder hit, their lives on the line as the protest lasts.
The grievance of the health workers is the plan by the management to privatise critical units of the hospital.
In order to compel the management to rescind its plan, the health workers resorted to endless protests, which have crippled activities at the Centre.
The workers who ignored the plea of the suffering patients, said the action was to bring the “anti-people” plot of the Medical Director, Dr. Angela Uwakwem and members of the board to the knowledge of the President-elect and other requisite authorities in the health sector.
They argued that “the decision to outsource or privatise the pharmacy and laboratory units of the hospital at the tail end of the present administration is suspicious and not in good fate”.
The aggrieved unionists, who displayed placards with various inscriptions like ‘Don’t sell FMC to corrupt contractors’, ‘PPP is fraud of the highest order’, ‘Hospital drugs not for commercialisation’, ‘they want to sell us and buy us’, among others, disclosed that the MD had already leased out the mortuary, laundry, security and transport units and is plotting to privatize the entire hospital if nothing is done.
One of the Union leaders, Comrade Nwokedi Samuel, said that every Unit of the hospital is performing creditably well so the reason cited by the management for the planned privatization is untrue.
He said, “The issue of selling the pharmacy is already before the Board but our question is why they are in a hurry to outsource the units now. Our worry is not all about us but the poor patients who may not be able to pay for the services thereafter. So we say no to leasing, outsourcing, privatization or whatever name it is called it is a fraud and we will resist it”.
He called on President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the move by the outgoing Medical Director and her team.
Apparently piqued by the stiff resistance to its plan, the management queried the union leaders who coordinated the protests, apparently to discourage the struggle but this further incensed the workers, who perceived the action as the height of intimidation.
Following the development, the determined union leaders completely shut down activities at the hospital by announcing a-three-day warning strike, preceded by massive protests that left patients and visitors scampering for safety.
The protesters who were dressed in black attires, marched round the premises, displaying placards with inscriptions such as, ‘We are tired of intimidation by management’, ‘ Withdraw the query given to our leaders’, ‘We say no to PPP’, ‘We need our 2013/2014 promotion arrears’ and ‘Buhari, please come to our rescue’, among others.
Addressing reporters, one of the union leaders and chairman of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), Comrade Ezeugwu Clifford, listed the grievances of the workers to include the non-payment of the 2013/2014 promotion arrears, which he said has been released to the management of the hospital, issuance of query to the Union leaders over their position on the plan to lease out some units of the hospital by the Management led by the Medical Director, Dr. Angela Uwakwem.
He also disclosed that as part of measures to press home their demands, the workers have embarked on a three-day warning strike, “we are going to apply the work-to-rule for three days as warning, this means that the workers will come to work but will not attend to any patient or do any kind of work.
“We are strongly opposing the plan to privatize the hospital because when this happens, many patients will die because they can’t afford the charges and already as we speak, FMC Owerri is the most expensive government hospital in the country”.
Another union leader, Comrade Dr. Stanley Emegwara, said, “The summary of our protest is that the management should pay all the benefits accruing to the workers and to withdraw all queries issued to our union leaders, which were meant to weaken the struggle against the plan to privatize the hospital”.
Emegwara, who faulted the charge of inefficiency and lack of accountability by the management as the reason for the planned privatisation, noted that, “the claim that we are inefficient by the management is unfounded. Our private investigations showed that FMC Owerri is one of the best performing government hospitals in Nigeria and the only three grounds provided for the privatization of government firm are inefficiency, unaccountability and lack of transparency”.
It would be recalled that at a time during similar protests, the management in defiance to the demands of striking workers hired ad hoc staff to keep the hospital running.
However when contacted who the Medical Director denied any plan by the management to privatize or outsource the entire hospital.
She insisted that, “what we are doing is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) to make our services more efficient. For instance we just built a new laboratory and we need partners to equip it because we don’t have the resources. We are not sacking anybody because we are providing the Staff and building so they don’t need to be afraid”.
She added further that, “the measure we have taken is in the best interest of the hospital but they are afraid because some of their excesses will be curtailed. On the issue of their promotion arrears the management is not withholding the funds as alleged, we are yet to get the money and it is not peculiar with FMC Owerri”.
Meanwhile stranded patients have appealed to the warring factions to shield their swords for humanity sake. According to them the health conditions have deteriorated since the crisis started.
Mr. Stanford Ikuru, an accident victim, lamented that his wounds have not been treated in the last one week.
He said, “We are the ones suffering as a result of this crisis. Nobody has attended to me and several others in the last one week so we are appealing to the management to resolve whatever crisis they have with the union and save us from further trouble”.
Another patient, Mrs. Grace Ilechukwu, described the situation as traumatizing, “if you go to the wards you cannot stand the odour because no one is cleaning up the wards. The labs and pharmacies are no more working the patients now go to the open market to buy their drugs”.
