Borno governor suspend doctors absent from duty indefinitely.
Doctors get suspension for absconding from duty
Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno state has directed the suspension of some medical doctors who absconded from duty.
The governor paid an unscheduled visit to some hospitals in the state midnight of Tuesday.
At one of the hospitals, Shehu Ultramodern Hospital in Maiduguri, the governor did not meet any of the doctors who were supposedly on night duty at about 2:00 am when he toured wards and units.
At the State Specialist Hospital, the situation was not the same as the governor met a few of them.
Many are anticipating for what actions the governor will take against the defaulters.
He said he was not satisfied with the situation in the hospitals.
‘I am not satisfied at all, at the Specialist Hospital, I am ok, reasonable degree of participation was noticed but at the Umaru Shehu Hospital, it is disheartening to note that we could not see a single doctor on ground during my visit which lasted for about two hours,’ he said.
The governor explained his dismay that ‘the hospital has about 138 nurses on it pay roll; only ten nurses were seen.
‘It is also unfortunate that in every ward, we have only one nurse on duty.’
He further noted that all efforts made to reach out to the doctors on call proved abortive despite the fact that they were patients at the accident and emergency ward.
‘The situation is very pathetic and therefore, I have directed the CMD (Chief Medical Director) to suspend those staff that were not on ground.’
The duration of the suspension has not been stated, and efforts by our correspondent to find out did not immediately yield results.
He furthermore stressed that the government will henceforth only pay those that are working, stressing that ‘due civil service procedure shall be followed to bring back the situation to normalcy.’
Recall that early this week, the Nigerian Health Blog reported that, His Excellency Prof Babagana Umara Zulum, Mni, the Executive Governor of Borno State paid an unscheduled visit to Umaru Shehu Ultra Modern Hospital where met medical doctor on duty and he had to place a call to all the 10 medical doctors on call, but none of them answered their calls.