Scores of medical doctors in the employ of the Ogun State Government on Wednesday stormed the governor’s office in Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, and protested against what they termed gross shortage of medical personnel and inadequate medical facilities among others, in the state-owned hospitals.

The medical doctors under the aegis of the  Nigerian Medical Association, Ogun State, arrived the governor’s office around 9am chanting solidarity songs. However, the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, was not available, to receive them.

They were armed with placards with different inscriptions such as ‘Governor Amosun, bring back our interns and NYSC health workers’ ‘Help us rebuild our health’ ‘Doctors are dying of work overload’ among others. The state chairman of the association, Dr Abayomi Olajide, who later addressed journalists and government officials,  said there was shortage of health workers in the local government areas and health institutions under the state hospital management boards.

While listing the cadres of health workers in short supply, he said there was shortage of doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other allied workers. Olajide said the association had written four letters to the governor without any response to any of them.

Though the association commended the government’s fight against quackery and the ‘Araya scheme’, Olajide said it needed to do more in terms of employment of more medical personnel and provide more medical equipment for effective health care delivery.

The Punch