The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, has listed conditions for effective fight against coronavirus.
They gave the suggestions in a statement jointly signed by the association’s President, Dr Abraham Akinbola, and the General Secretary, Dr Abubakar Usman.
They premised their advisory on thier observation of the situation and facilities available to combat the deadly virus.
ARD told the Oyo government and others to make provision for adequate and appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including Hazmats’s suit for health workers combating the virus.
They called for the upgrading of the Isolation Centre at the Teaching Hospital in Ogbomoso to accommodate more patients while adequate arrangements should be made to improve manpower.
ARD said the Virology Laboratory in the College of Health Sciences of the hospital in Ogbomoso needed to be upgraded to Biosafety level 3.
“Government should ensure appropriate personnel are engaged to help the state government, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and WHO in the fight against this pandemic,” it said.
“All health workers in the country are frontline health workers, same as those in isolation centres. A group life insurance policy must be put in place to cater for indemnity of our members in the course of discharging their duties both during this pandemic era and thereafter”>
The doctors demanded an urgent action on the perennial challenges facing the teaching hospital such as payment of one year salary arrears.
The statement advocated the implementation of the corrected CONMESS for payment of salary to attract more doctors to the teaching hospital in Ogbomoso.
ARD further advocated for the enrollment of the hospital’s staff into the new minimum wage payment platform in the state as well as increasing the institution’s monthly subvention.
