The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Enugu State branch, says more than 10 doctors were victims of kidnapping and other violent crimes in less than two months in Enugu State.
This is contained in a communiqué issued on Friday in Enugu at the end of an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) of the NMA, Enugu State branch, held on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu.
The communique was jointly signed by the Chairman of NMA Enugu State, Dr Celestine Ugwoke, and the General Secretary, Dr Sunday Okafor.
The statement said: “First, the EGM strongly resolved to call on the Enugu State Government to, as a matter of urgency, ensure that all our public hospitals are well and heavily guarded by armed security personnel.
“The government should equally ensure the beefing up of the presence and operations of armed security patrol teams across the state.
“Secondly, the EGM unanimously resolved to request the State Government to, as a matter of utmost priority, rejig and totally revamp the current security architecture of the state.
“The rejigging should be done through adequate funding for security, installations of modern technologies and security gadgets among other innovative security measures that would speedily help bring this ugly situation to a halt.
“The EGM also resolved to call on all the security agencies in the State to live up to their biddings/obligations, scale up operations and ensure that the current trend is radically aborted and culprits brought to justice.”
It said that the EGM further resolved to mandate the management of the various health institutions in the state to either ensure that Medical/Dental consultants on hospital calls are provided with decent call rooms, meals and other facilities or in the alternative provide a to-and-fro Ambulance escort for them to be able to perform their duties.
According to the statement, the EGM resolved to unequivocally charge all health institutions in the state to, as a matter of urgency, set up a Security Committee meeting, adopt and adapt the UNTH template currently being implemented while also factoring in their own peculiarities as the case may be.
“The EGM further resolved to officially communicate all relevant security agencies in the state on the need for better collaboration and synergy by embarking on security sensitization tours across the major health institutions in the state, while also ensuring that their operations and presence are well felt in these places.
“The EGM finally resolved to notify the State Government and all other relevant authorities in the State that the Association will closely monitor the trend and implementation of these resolutions.
“These included the earlier advanced protest letters and may not be able to guarantee industrial harmony in the entire Health sector of the State if reasonable progress is not made in good time,” it added. (NAN)
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