By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

A five-day warning strike has been declared by medical doctors working with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi under the umbrella of Association of Resident Doctors.

According to the body, the action is as a result of attacks on its members by relatives of patients, who usually assault doctors, anytime a patient dies in the hospital.

An attack happened recently when relatives of a deceased patient held a doctor hostage for two hours, amid torture, after he joined nurses to try to resuscitate a dying patient.

A communique signed by the President and secretary of the group, Dr Ndukwe Chinwe and Dr Egbue Obiora, respectively lamented the incessant attacks, saying nobody had been questioned over the attack.

The communique issued after an emergency general meeting reads in part, “The Association of Resident Doctors, NAUTH, Nnewi, had an emergency general meeting on January 24, 2023, following the physical assault and near-death experience of its member. The meeting which had over 100 members present, made the following observations:

“A five-day total shutdown of clinical and emergency services has been issued by Congress, commencing from (6am Wednesday) January 25, 2023 and ends on (8am Monday) 30th January 2023.

“The Congress insists that Management should ensure prosecution of the culprits involved in this dastardly act so as to serve as a deterrent to others in the future.

“The security architecture of the hospital needs to be overhauled and replaced with able bodied unarmed local vigilante or civil defense operatives.

“Management as a matter of urgency needs to recruit more resident doctors and medical officers so as to increase manpower and improve service delivery..

It called on the hospital Management toenforce strict adherence to visiting time,, saying that nopatient relative should be allowed in the ward beyond the approved visiting time.

It recalled that on January 22, 2023, its member went to review a patient at the male surgical ward, where he met nurses who were resuscitating another patient through CPR.

“It added, "In a bid to save the patient, our

member joined in the resuscitation. but unfortunately, the patient died and the doctor was subsequently brutally assaulted by the deceased patient’s relatives.

“He endured over two hours of this torture and humiliation before the late intervention of the hospital security outfit and Management.

“While the Supreme Congress of Association of Resident doctors NAUTH, Nnewi acknowledges the efforts of NAUTH management to condemn the incident and ensure that the assailants were arrested by the police, amidst other measures, the group noted that we, however, feel that more needs to be done to send a strong and clear message as a deterrent to all to ensure that assault on any doctor does not happen again.”