Medical services have been paralysed at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, following an indefinite strike embarked upon by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondents that monitored the strike in Enugu on Wednesday reports that all the paramedics including nurses, laboratory and administrative staff in the hospital are not on duty.

NAN reports that the nurses sections in different wards, X-ray, pharmacy departments and cash offices were under lock.

Some of the doctors in the hospital were seen attending to patients on skeletal basis especially at the outpatients department.

One of the doctors who spoke to NAN in anonymity said that they were offering skeletal services as doctors could not perform all the functions in the hospital.

The doctor said that they needed a team of medical and paramedics to function optimally.

“As you can see, this is a specialist hospital and we cannot function effectively without the paramedics. There are no interns like house officers or auxiliary nurses to assist us as it is obtainable in other hospitals.

“We have commenced referrals of non-stable patients to some state owned general hospitals and discharge of some stable ones,” he said.

Some of the patients in the hospital appealed to the federal government to urgently look into the demands of the workers for their sake.

A patient, Izuchukwu Friday, who was to go for surgery, said that he had already paid for the operation and could not afford another bill in different hospital.

“I do not know what to do and my poor mother is financially down to foot a bill in another hospital,” he cried.

Meanwhile, it was a different situation at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital and the Federal Dental Therapy/Technology in Enugu as they have not complied with the strike directive.

Mr Christopher Okezie, the spokesperson of the dental institution, said that they had yet to receive directive from their national body concerning the strike.

An administrative staff at the neuropsychiatric hospital told NAN that they had just resumed from an internal strike adding that JOHESU never came to their rescue during their internal crisis.

The staff said that the workers were still waiting for the directive from the national body. (NAN)

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