Tag Archives: doctors

Kenya to hire foreign doctors as strike talks fail again

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Kenyan authorities said Wednesday they would hire foreign doctors to get public hospitals running again after talks failed to end a strike that has crippled healthcare for 94 days.

The government has threatened repeatedly to fire striking doctors and has even gone so far as to jail union officials in a bid to end the country’s longest-ever medical strike, but the doctors are digging their heels in.

Peter Munya, the chairman of the council of governors, said the government was “working on contingent measures to return the health sector to where it was by looking for services wherever they are available in the continent or outside the continent.”

A furious President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday lambasted the some 5,000 doctors who have been striking for better pay and working conditions, accusing them of “blackmail”.

“We will not succumb to threats and intimidation. Do these doctors think we are that stupid? We have offered you better salaries than those in private hospitals!” he said at a joint press conference with Munya.

At the root of the doctors’ strike is a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) agreed between the government and the unions in 2013.

The document promises to triple salaries but also to improve often dire conditions in public hospitals — which striking doctors point to when accused of being greedy.

The government said the document was still being fine-tuned but doctors argue it is a legal deal which they want implemented immediately.

A Kenyan court which declared the strike illegal appointed church leaders to mediate after several other mediators failed. However even they failed to make headway after the union on Tuesday rejected a 50 percent salary increase and improved risk allowance.

The previous offer had been 40 percent.

– Poor working conditions –
Poor salaries and working conditions — such as a lack of vital drugs and equipment — have pushed Kenyan doctors to flee the public sector or go to other countries where there are better opportunities.

Kenya’s main doctors’ union, KMPDU, says the country has one doctor to 17,000 patients, while the World Health Organization recommends one to 1,000.

University lecturers also went on strike in January, a double blow to Kenyatta’s government just five months before general elections.

A series of corruption scandals — including in the health ministry — are fuelling the discontent, as is anger towards lawmakers who are among the best paid in the world and have voted themselves new benefits while claiming to be unable to meet doctors’ and lecturers’ demands.

 

Source: The Guardian

Kenyan Court Releases Jailed Doctors

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Kenya’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday ordered the release of jailed officials from the national doctors’ union, so they can negotiate with the government over the strike that has paralysed the public health sector.

The strike has angered Kenyans and turned into a test of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s leadership ahead of an election in August.

The union, which has about 5,000 members, wants the government to implement a deal agreed in 2013 to give doctors a 150 to 180 percent pay rise on basic salaries, review working conditions, job structures and criteria for promotions and address under-staffing in state hospitals.

The seven union officials were ordered to serve a one-month jail term on Monday after a lower court found them guilty of contempt of court in relation to the strike which started in December.

Appellate Judge Wanjiru Karanja said the seven officials would be released immediately. She said the parties in the labor dispute had seven days to find a resolution.

“The applicants, respondents and interested parties undertake to resume negotiations forthwith, with a view to resolving the outstanding issues, in order to restore normalcy in the public health sector,” she told a court packed with doctors.

The government has offered the striking doctors a 40 percent pay rise which the union rejected.

The Law Society of Kenya and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, who appeared as interested parties, were ordered to mediate the dispute and report back to the court.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga said the strike had dragged for too long and blamed the government for the impasse.

“So many innocent Kenyans have died in hospitals for lack of treatment,” he told reporters outside the court.

Kwara Government To Sanction Doctors Practising At Home.

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The Kwara State Government has said that it will sanction doctors who are found to be operating medical services in their place of residence in the state.

The State Commissioner for Health, Mr Sulaiman Atolagbe Alege, while speaking to newsmen in Ilorin, the state capital, described the act as illegal and said that such has not been discovered, the ministry is on the watch out to bring culprits to book.

“The Kwara state ministry of health has a monitoring team that is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and checking some of this illegal practices. If anyone is caught, he/she will be sanctioned.” He stated.

Meanwhile, a medical doctor who doubles as a Consultant of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Professor Rabiu Yinka has attributed the problem to faulty structure in the country.

According to Prof. Rabiu, he lamented that there should be relevant policies and structure to accommodate medical doctors before graduation.

He said, some graduate doctors indulge in the practice after failing to secure a place for their internship upon graduating from medical School.

However, the professor, who is also the chief medical director of Surulere Hospital in Ilorin, has appealed to the government to focus more on areas that can help to eradicate poverty, rather than embark on infrastructural projects.

“You cannot eradicate problems such as this except necessary policies and structures are put in place by the government at all levels.

“I want to enjoin government to concentrate on how to focus on poverty eradication, rather than going into some unnecessary projects.
Projects are good in fact it helps the state but the people should be helped,” Prof. Rabiu added.

In the same vein, a medical doctor, Dr. Olayiwola Ismail said that graduates in the field, are not certified to operate until they have undergone internship training.

However, he advised the public not to patronise doctors who operate from their homes for their health sake.

 

Source: Channels TV

It’s only in Nigeria that doctors abandon patients because of strike – Minister

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Ehanire Osagie, minister of state for health, believes  doctors should not be going on strike, as there are other ways to address grievances.

According to SUN, Osagie said this during the commissioning of electronic medical records/e-payment and solar power installations to mark health week 2017 organized by the federal medical center, Keffi.

He appealed to the doctors to consider the implication of downing tools.

“It is only in Nigeria that medical doctors go on strike and abandon patients on the sick bed,” he said.

“Health workers/medical doctors should not be seen going on strike. Under no condition must you go on strike and abandon your patients on the sick bed, due to non-payment of entitlements.

“In most countries, doctors don’t go on strike as the interest of patients must be given top priority.

“There are ways of addressing such grievances, it may take a little time but certainly will be resolved.”

He said the government is committed to building one primary health center in each of the council wards across the country to reduce the heavy burden on secondary health centers.

 

Source: The Cable

NMA suspends 12 doctors for alleged indiscipline

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The Nigerian Medical Association has suspended twelve of its members for professional misconduct in flaunting its constitutional provisions that prohibit members from taking to the court rather than explore internal mechanisms for dispute resolution.

The National President of the Association, Prof. Mike Ozovehe Ogirima, who made the disclosure while reading the communiqué issued at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Lokoja, Kogi State, said affected the members have the liberty to appeal their suspension internally.

Ogirima: “We suspend our members based on constitutional provisions. We have internal mechanisms for disciplining ourselves and if any member has not explored all avenues to resolve issues and jumped to the court of law the constitution stipulates their suspension so that they have more time to prosecute and follow up their cases that is the provision we have just evoked on them.

“This is not the first time NMA is taking that measure. However they have an opportunity for an appeal internally to the Annual Delegate Meeting if they are not satisfied with the action taken by NEC.”

Those suspended indefinitely include: Dr. Moses Oriasotie from Edo; Dr. Amoti Earnest (Edo); Dr. Atiola Olayinka (Lagos State); Dr. Adegbaju Dapo (Lagos State); Dr. Olubinmi Omojowolo (Lagos State); Dr. Alabi Babatunde Musbau (Lagos State); and Dr. Sekunmade Alade Abeni (Lagos State).

Others are: Dr. Uwaje Kenneth Nnamoi (Lagos State); Dr. Abiloye Kemi (Lagos State); Dr. Ayodeji Olaniyi; and Dr. Balogun Babatunde all from Lagos State.

The President also declared the position of NEC on the immediate past chairman of Lagos State/Zone of NMA who has been sent to the NMA national disciplinary committee.

“NEC also authorises the President and any other aggrieved members to seek redress with the MDCN who should look urgently into cases of professional misconducts that is very rampant in the profession in accordance with the code of medical ethics.”

According to him, the NMA while seeking legal redress along with her partners in the court of law it calls for the immediate operation alizarin of the National Health Act 2014 (NHAct 2014).

Ogirima explained that NHAct 2014 is a law of the land for which 10 years before it was enacted was a bill sponsored by members of the Association and health workers were called to contribute to it at an open hearing.

“The Act seeks to redress most of the problems we are having in the health sector pertaining to the availability of infrastructure, the care for emergencies on our roads, the care for the under privileged in our society; the aged, infants below five years, pregnant mothers and accident victims on our roads.”

“There is a provision in that act that says that at least one per cent of consolidated revenue of our country should be set aside as basic health fund.”

For postgraduate medical training to succeed in achieving better health outcomes for citizens, the President urged government to accord the training top priority.

He called for increased funding of medical postgraduate training and support for the ongoing effort by the House of Representatives to amend the Act establishing Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to include tertiary health institutions involved in training and research among the beneficiaries of the fund.

Nigerian doctors treating ailing citizens for malaria without test – USAID

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United States Government, Monday, accused medical practitioners in the country of treating ailing Nigerians for malaria without conducting required test on them.

The US, through the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, also condemned production of Chloroquine in the country for the treatment of malaria.

USAID Country Director, Michael Harvey, stated this at the launch of Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey report in Abuja.

Harvey said despite millions of dollars spent on the disease in the country, the nation had remained too endemic with the condition, even on the continent where other smaller nations had contained it.

Nigeria’s Malaria elimination programme is coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Health through the National Malaria Elimination Programme, NMEP. The organisation (including other parastatals in the Federal Ministry of Health) was recently indicted by the Global Fund for grossly mismanaging funds released for eradicating malaria in the country.

Though President Buhari ordered the Economic and Financial Commission, EFCC, to probe the alleged corruption about five months ago, findings of the 2016commission have not been made public.

Harvey said at the launch of the survey: “What is striking is that there continues to be imported nets, and we do yet have an industry in Nigeria that is producing them at a cost Nigerians can afford. What is very clear from the report however is that there are some immediate to-do in our action list, first people are testing, to see if a fever is malaria.

“And, this is something that should be doable since affordable test kits are readily available either through the public sector or private sector at an affordable cost. Too many medical professionals are still treating without testing and this is easy to fix, but the men and women need to be taught about changing that culture in the Nigerian medical professional.

“Second, we are not treating malaria proper. I am surprise to find out when you travel around Nigeria Chloroquine is readily available and too readily prescribed as a treatment for malaria. Worst, this is actually a major public policy that we have to get on top of. We are still producing Chloroquine in Nigeria, a drug that has no beneficial use either for malaria or any other use.

We have some challenges, and for those who are in the front lines of providing health care to the poorest, and it is always important to bear the greatest burden. We must get on top of these short comings.”

Doctors Get New Condition Of Service

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The Plateau Government has approved a new condition of service for medical doctors in the state in order to attract more indigenous doctors.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Kunden Kamshak, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Jos.

Kamshak said the new condition of service would finally put an end to the paucity of medical doctors being experienced in the state due to poor remuneration.
The commissioner said that a great number of doctors left Plateau for other states as a result to poor remuneration.

“When this administration assumed office we discovered that in the health sector we had paucity of doctors in the various health establishments.

“We also discovered that most of our indigenous doctors worked in other states. We discovered that most doctors left the state due to poor remuneration and condition of service.

“As a means of addressing this issue, the governor gave the approval and we came up with an improved condition of service for our doctors, which was implemented in September this year.

“With this we are hoping to attract more doctors who left the state due to the initial poor condition of service,” he added.

Kamshak said that the government would be reviewing the condition of service for the doctors along with other cadres of healthcare workers.

Credit: NAN

 

Bello lampoons doctors, nurses over inhuman treatment of patients

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Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state has expressed displeasure over the attitude of doctors and nurses towards the treatment of patients in public hospitals in the state, saying they are inhuman in their conduct.

He said: “If you see the way some patients are treated by nurses and doctor, it is inhuman, to the extent that the sickness of the patients often times degenerate”.

He said that with such attitude, there could not be service delivery and actualisation of the change desired by the people.

The governor said he had been “having headache and sleepless nights over this and the behaviour of many other institutions in the state including the police, civil service and the judiciary”.

Change, according to him, was not a one-man business, he said and called for more commitment and support for the “Change Begins With Me” campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He lamented that more lip service was paid to the campaign, stressing that for the country to achieve the desired change all and sundry must deliberately and consciously work towards it.

“We all have been shouting the change slogan, but I am disappointed because the change is not yet with us. Whether you are a doctor, policeman, civil servant, politician or a judge, the change is about everyone”.

“The day the police and the judiciary will uphold the law, is the day things will change for the better. We must move away from the way we have been doing businesses; we must pity those that don’t have and those who cannot help themselves. Everyone has a role to play”, he said.

He emphasised the need for Nigerians to shun corruption and be dedicated in the discharge of duties with strict adherence to the ethics of our professions and callings.

He said: “Everyone has a role to play from the governor to the last political appointee, we must move away from the old ways, we must care and pity those who cannot help themselves. We must care for the less-privileged. We must also desist from employing family members who do nothing at the expense of the state.“

Doctor Exposes Woman Who Faked Pregnancy For 9 Months In Ilorin

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The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Yusjib Industrial Medicare, Ilorin, Dr Yusuf Abdulraheem, says he has discovered a young lady that has been faking pregnancy for close to nine months. Abdulraheem told newsmen on Tuesday in Ilorin that he discovered that the lady used clothing as a disguise for the pregnancy by stuffing them under her normal clothes to make her appear pregnant.

According to the doctor, he made the discovery while trying to examine the lady who is in her early twenties. He said that the lady identified herself as Azeezat Abubakar.

The CMD said that the lady who was brought to the hospital for delivery, identified herself as

Azeezat Abubakar. He added that he became suspicious when she refused to be examined.

“She has been using my hospital name to claim money at home, telling her family she is doing her ante-natal in Yusjib. When her family brought her, I noticed that i had never seen her face before, but for the benefit of doubt, I told her to remove her folder which she could not locate.

“In the absence of one, I opened a new folder for her; I requested she come to the couch for examination only for her to be squatting. “It was her mother-in-law who forced her to the couch and as I tried to examine her tommy, I discovered it was clothes she padded there’’, Abdulraheem said.

The doctor condemned the incident and urged mothers to monitor their young girls closely. He also wondered why the mother-in-law did not discover the fake pregnancy for close to nine months.

Mum Claims She’s Been Pregnant For 15 Months & Can Feel It Kicking But Doctors Disagree

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A mum-of-nine believes she has been pregnant for 15 months and even says she has heard the baby’s heartbeat.

Linda Reeves claims she can feel the ‘baby’ kicking and squirming – but medics say she has just overeaten.

The 50-year-old has been sent for five scans over the past year but they have shown that nothing is growing in her womb.

Town councillor Linda is now convinced her ‘baby’ is an abdominal pregnancy, which is when the child grows outside the womb.

She said: “Nobody will take me seriously. I’ve had nine children and I know what it’s like to feel a baby inside me.”

She added: “I’ve had all the symptoms of pregnancy – sickness, backache and tiredness. I am absolutely certain that there is a baby there, but it is growing in the wrong place.

“I keep going to my GP and he’s agreed to a few times to send me for a pregnancy scan. But they only scan my womb – so how can they find my baby if it’s growing in my abdomen?”

While visiting her sister, Linda begged her sibling’s GP to listen to her tummy with a Doppler machine.

She told the Milton Keynes Citizen: ““I heard the baby’s heartbeat! I know that sound so well, how could I not recognise it!”

The mum has been stopped in the street by strangers who notice her protruding belly and ask when the baby is due.

“When I tell people I’ve been pregnant for 15 months they don’t believe me. I don’t blame them,” Linda said.

Desperate Linda is now pleading with medics to give her a full CT scan to discover exactly what is lurking inside her but claims her request has been refused.

One doctor even told Linda, from Milton Keynes, Bucks, that her ‘pregnancy’ is due to overeating.

Linda fumed: “He said I was just too fat. I was furious.

“I may not be the slimmest person in the world but I’ve actually lost weight because I’ve been so stressed since all this started in May last year.”

She added: “[Doctors] even suggested I have a mental health problem and it’s a phantom pregnancy. They gave me anti-depressants but I threw the prescription in the bin.

“If by some chance I am wrong, then I want to know exactly what is happening inside me. What if it’s cancer? I have a right to be treated seriously.”

Paralyzed Woman Shocked Doctors By Walking Down On Her Wedding Day & Even Danced

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A Georgia woman who was told the likelihood of her walking again was so low the percentage was ‘too small to put a number on’ has walked down the aisle at her dream wedding.

Jaquie Goncher, 25, became paralyzed from the neck down at age 17 after an accident in a swimming pool that left her floating face down in the water, believing she’d die.

Doctors told her mother they were hesitant to even put a percentage on the chances of Goncher walking again. Goncher, from Marietta, went from being an active teen who played softball to being
wheelchair-bound.

However, the then-teen refused to be stuck in a chair and after meeting her now-husband, 35-year-old Andy Goncher, she was determined to not only walk down the aisle at their wedding but to also dance.

She had worked hard to regain her ability to stand but Goncher’s low blood pressure made it impossible for her to be on her feet for more than 30 minutes.

After working with physical therapists, spending hours in the gym on a treadmill and exercising her core for strength.

‘It was more than physically hard because I was an athlete…I knew how I should be working out and to do it halfway was emotional,’ Goncher told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

When Goncher’s big day finally arrived few people knew she would be walking down the aisle.

‘I was so nervous. Those entire moments leading up to it, I thought I was going to throw up,’ she said. Finally, she made her way down the aisle to her husband.

‘It was like a movie. Everyone was shocked in the best way,’ Kuhn said.

Goncher danced with her husband, Kuhn painted the moment in water colors.

‘I just felt blessed. I’ve been walking through journey of healing for eight years… I had to put my faith in God – it reminded me of how far I have come,’ Goncher said.

Ekiti NMA Buries Three More Doctors, Driver Amidst Tears

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Emotion ran high on Thursday during the commendation/funeral service for three more medical doctors from Ekiti State and their driver at the Nigerian Medical Association’s secretariat on Ado-Iyin road.

The four were among six doctors and a driver that died on Sunday along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway on their way to the Annual Delegates Meeting of the NMA in Sokoto.

Those given the last honour were the late Dr. Atolani Adeniyi, Senior Health Officer with the Ekiti Hospitals Management Board; the late Dr. J.B. Ogunseye, who served as Senior Dental Officer at the General Hospital, Ifaki; the late Dr. Olayiwola Olajide who until his death was the President of the Association of Resident Doctors, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, and a driver of the NMA, Mr. Olowookere Ajibola.

Ogunseye and Olajide were buried at the premises of the NMA secretariat while the remains of Adeniyi and Olowookere were conveyed to their communities for interment.

The remains of two other victims, the late Dr. Alexander Akinyele, who was a Resident Doctor, Community Medicine, Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti, and the late Dr. O.J. Taiwo, a consultant, Anatomic Pathologist at EKSUTH, will be buried at a later date.

A consultant General Surgeon at FETHI, the late Dr. Tunde Aladesanmi, had been buried on Wednesday after a funeral service held in his honour at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Life Fountain Cathedral, Ado Ekiti.

It was learnt that Taiwo’s burial was delayed because he died barely 24hrs after the death of his mother.

The state Deputy Governor, Dr. Kolapo Olusola, represented Governor Ayodele Fayose at the event which was also attended by the House of Assembly Speaker, Kola Oluwawole; the Head of Service, Dr. Gbenga Faseluka; Chief of Staff, Dipo Anisulowo, and other top government officials.

The House Committee Chairman, Dr. Samuel Omotosho, said the governor had given approval for automatic employment of the wives of Akinyele and Olajide.

Emotion heightened during the dust to dust rite when Ogunseye’s wife, Omolara, who had been crying all day started shouting “don’t go, don’t go.”

Olajide’s wife also insisted that the casket be opened for him to see the face of her late husband. “That’s him, that’s him,” she shouted breaking down in tears again.

Pastor Olurotimi Sanya, in a sermon entitled, “Teach us to number our days,” described human life as very short and ephemeral.

Urging the audience to always prepare for the day of death, he added that everything had its time.

The Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, the Most Rev. Felix Ajakaye, offered prayers for the families of the deceased and also urged the people to fulfil all the promises made to them.

“To lose one’s husband, brother, friend and confidant is enough trauma. Please, don’t let the widows suffer. The properties left behind, they worked together as husband and wife. I will appeal to you, don’t let them suffer.”

Olusola urged the families of the deceased to take heart during the period of grief, pledging the support of the state government to them.

He said, “When God says it is time, it is time. When your own day comes, what will people say about you. And when my own time comes what will the people say about me?

“We all have our own today and tomorrow but the greatest tomorrow is the one that will meet us at the feet of Christ. Let us learn from our departed brothers. They died in active service, they were hardworking and diligent.”

 

Credit : Punch

Doctors To Commence Indefinite Strike April 25

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Others were the reversal of sacked members in some hospitals as well as appropriate funding of residency training programme. Askira noted that some of their members in states tertiary hospitals in Osun, Imo, Ekiti, Abia and Kogi, among others, had not been paid salaries ranging from three to eight months, adding that labourers deserved their wages. He described that of Osun State government as worrisome, noting that it had remained at ease in spite of the total collapse of the healthcare delivery in the state and its attendant loss of lives.

He said: “We note the undue sack of our members from some of the training institutions. Additionally, the delay in effecting the pension deductions of our members was regrettably noted. “Whereas a labour deserves his wages, we note that some of our members in some state owned tertiary hospitals have not been paid salaries ranging from three to eight months. “Most notable are LAUTECH, Ogbomoso in Osun State, IMSUTH, Orlu in Imo State, Kogi Specialist Hospital, ABSUT, Aba in Abia State and Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital.

“Most worrisome is the government of Osun State that remains unperturbed despite the total collapse of health care delivery in the state and its attendant loss of lives. “We note with dismay the inappropriate placement and remuneration of our members in states and federal tertiary hospitals across the nation. As such, most hospitals are paying our members only fractions. “Most hospitals are paying our members only fractions of their salaries, notably FETHA Abakiliki, FMC Umuahia, ABUTH Zaria, UNTH Enugu, among others, while in UCH Ibadan, UBTH Benin City, LUTH Idi-Araba, FMC Owerri, ISTH Irua, and NOH Dala November and December 2015 salaries are yet to be paid.” Askira, however, urged the government to adequately fund hospitals at all levels and upgrade existing facilities in public hospitals in line with international best practices.

“We implore government to adequately fund hospitals at all levels and upgrade existing facilities in our hospitals in line with international best practices which will go a long way to curb the menace of foreign medical tourism. “We urge governments at all levels to release and implement residency training guidelines with appropriate budgetary backing. “Our association will no longer tolerate the undue sack of resident doctors and demands immediate reversal of such.

We also urge government at all levels to strictly comply with pension deductions act as amended,” he said. Asked about the consequences of the association’s action following the “no work, no pay rule” by the Federal Government, Askira said such a threat did not bother the association, and that government had no moral justification for it. He said: “The issue of no work, no pay is a matter of law, and we are law abiding. But we are working for months without pay. We are ready for it. We are making demands that are primarily the responsibilities of government. Government can’t rule out strike when it fails to play its part. Doctors in some hospitals have not been paid since December.”

Credit: NationalMirror

Doctors Blame Health Sector Crises On Judiciary, Ministry, Others

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Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, yesterday blamed industrial disharmony and other crises in the nation’s health sector on judiciary, health ministry, hospitals’ managements, and health workers in the country. The doctors specifically identified interpretations of health-related laws by judges in the country, alleged weaknesses of past and present governments to tackle issues headlong and deliberate attempts by non-doctors to hijack their roles in hospitals as fundamental reasons crises in the sector have worsened and lingered. The group repeatedly affirmed its leadership of the nation’s health sector, including all hospitals, and vowed never to concede it to any health worker other than doctors. The NMA urged Nigerians to prevail on the federal and other tiers of government to ensure all employees work according to their rules of engagement and discipline. The group however warned that the sector could witness “disaster and collapse” if the alleged trends were not addressed. A statement signed by president and General-Secretary of the group, Kayode Obembe and Adewunmi Alayaki respectively, called on the National Assembly to urgently hold a joint session to probe alleged anomalies in the sector. It also seeks the implementation of report of the Yayale Ahmed-led Presidential Committee on Harmony in the sector.

The association lamented that non-medical practitioners and doctors, who once worked in health facilities to save patients, now live like rats in hospitals. Condemning judicial pronouncement which favoured non-doctors, the association said: “The Nigerian Medical Association is highly appalled by the state of affairs in the healthcare delivery system which has been reinforced by the recent ruling of National Industrial Court. An ill-informed ruling as a result of a poor understanding of the meaning of medicine, its ramifications and appendages, the role and rights of practitioners of medicine and their relationship with allied healthcare professionals for the purpose of maintaining members of the public in a state of health.” Consequent upon hatred caused by crises in the sector, the doctors argued that “deep-rooted enmity of a lifetime and for future generations has been created among a group of people who work and live together as a team because of these interpretations that pacified only the crying baby without asking for the reason for the lamentation.” The group said it was furious over alleged attempts by non-doctors to usurp their functions through various tactics including being “aided by the acquiescence or collusion of some persons entrusted with power and authority to perform certain roles in the system, to foist a state of frozen conflict on the healthcare delivery system of Nigeria to the detriment of the public.”

It added that health workers have used a combination of “contrived” misapplication of government policy and establishment circulars and misused legislations to cause unimaginable divisions, segmentation, indiscipline and other vices in the healthcare system with attendant but avoidable injuries and deaths to unsuspecting members of the public.

Credit: NationalMirror

Pregnant Woman In Labor Has Emergency C-section But Doctors Can’t Find The Baby

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Mom of 4, Amber Hughes went into labor at 30 weeks. She had been warned she would go into early labor by doctors after losing her mucus plug at 24 weeks. The young mum endured 36 hours of hard labor and when it became apparent the baby had an infection, they rushed her in to have a C-section.

It wasn’t long before Hughes knew something was very wrong. The doctors were moving about frantically and there was no crying heard for at least two minutes. Remarkably, Hughes was delivering her baby naturally at the exact moment the doctors were performing the C-section. All of a
sudden, cries from baby Olly were heard, and he was found under the sheet.

Hughes said:

“For two minutes they had lost my baby. That is just ludicrous…My body was telling me it was ready and I should have listened to it. I now wear a scar that wasn’t needed, across my tummy. I’m thankful my baby is okay, but we’ll never be able to forget the day the doctors lost our baby.”

Amber is currently trying to get answers from the hospital. Thankfully, little Olly is healthy

Woman Sent Soap Made From Her Fat To Ex Who Dumped Her Because She Was Overweight

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Xiaoxiao from Hunan, China sent a public message to her ex on Weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter) claiming she is sending his mother a bar of soap made from her liposuctioned fat as a Spring Festival present along with what are supposedly before, during and after photos of the procedure.

“Yang Xiaolei, do you remember last year’s Spring Festival? Since I can’t go home with you this year, I’ve made a piece of soap from my own fat to give to your mum for washing up. Chinese New Year – the time to surprise those low men who can only judge a book by its cover!” the message reads. “You said I was fat. I’m sending your entire family some soap, believe it or not!”

Source: Shanghaiist

Medical Director Appeals To Health Workers To Call Off Strike

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Dr Peter Alabi, the Chief Medical Director, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), has appealed to members of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses to call off their warning strike.

 

The union on Monday embarked on a three-day warning strike to press home its demand for payment of one year teaching allowance to its members on grade levels 7 and 8.

 

Alabi told newsmen that negotiations to resolve the issue was ongoing and called on the union to suspend its action.

 

“It is true that we owe them only one year allowance, but only nine staffers are affected. Knowing that there is no money in circulation, we have been able to meet two out of the three demands they made.

 

We have made efforts before this strike to dialogue with the union, but we were not able to get a good representation from them,’’ he said.

 

Alabi appealed to the public to bear with the management of the hospital as efforts were being made to ensure that things were brought to normalcy.

 

According to the director, health is a team work, adding that doctors on ground had been doing their best to ensure that health services are rendered to patients.

 

He called on the union to consider the sufferings of the populace, especially patients, who could afford private hospital bills and end the strike.

 

 

(NAN)

Cambodian Doctor Jailed For 25 Years For Infecting 300 People With HIV

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A Cambodian court has convicted an unlicensed medical practitioner of murder and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for spreading HIV among almost 300 villagers.

A spokesman for the court in the northwestern province of Battambang said Yem Chrin, 56, was found guilty on Thursday of torture and cruel behaviour resulting in death, intentionally spreading HIV and practising medicine without a licence.

Ten of the villagers have died since the outbreak began.

Authorities detected an epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS, on December 9 when they started testing a community in Battambang. The victims ranged from a two-year-old to elderly in their 80s.

It first started after a 74-year-old man tested positive for HIV in November. The man convinced others in the village who had also visited Yem Chrin to also get tested.

The court found Yem Chrin guilty of operating health treatment without license, injecting people with syringes that spread HIV and torturing people to die.

Yem Chrin admitted to routinely reusing syringes but denied intentionally spreading the virus.

He was arrested in December last year and taken into protective custody, with the authorities fearing he might be lynched by residents of Roka village

Police said Yem Chrin was a well-respected doctor who villagers believed had healing powers and who provided cheap treatment for the poor.

Fake Doctors: MDCN To Verify Doctors Employed By FG

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After the discovery of a fake doc­tor, Martins Ugwu, who worked in the Federal Ministry of Health for nine years, using the cer­tificates of his friend, Dr. Davidson Daniel George, the Medical and Den­tal Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has commenced verification of all doctors employed by the Federal Government.

Registrar of the MDCN, Dr. Abdulmunin Ibrahim, said in an exclusive in­terview in Abuja, that the detec­tion of Ugwu, who rose to become the chairman of Nigerian Medical Asso­ciation (NMA) chapter of the Health Ministry, was a pointer to the possibility of many other impersonators working for government.

Read More: sunnewsonline

News Alert: Mourinho Plays Down Chelsea Medical Row

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Jose Mourinho has responded to the criticism he has received for a row that developed between him and his medical staff in the 2-2 draw with Swansea.

He told reporters: “I don’t want to run away from it. I accept the question, and understand.

“First of all, I want to say I have a fantastic medical deptartment, with top doctor, more than a dozen professionals, a very good relationship with them and, as they tell me all the time, they were never praised so much as in last few years. I praise them lots of times. They don’t forget that, I don’t.

“We have disagreements during this period, we need disagreements to improve. We work together.

“Your question about the bench. For some people it’s important. For others, it’s not… It’s my decision.

“I have seven assistants, only four can go on bench. Seven kitmen, only two. Medical, only two on bench Dr Fearne and Dr Carneiro will not be on the bench, but doesn’t mean for rest of season.

“My decision [this weekend] does not mean they won’t be on the bench in the future.”

More to follow…

Doctor, Nurse Land In Court After Aborting 6 Months Old Pregnancy Of 31-Year Old Lady

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According to Tribuneonline, a man who claimed to be a medical doctor, Taiwo Ogunlana and a nurse, Kafayat Oyekola, have been arraigned before an Ebute Metta Magistrates’ Court, Lagos State, for carrying out an illegal abortion on one Miss Kemi Awoniyi.

Ogunlana, who claimed to have attended Lagos State University Teaching Hospital School of Nursing between 1979 and 1983, worked with the National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos.

He was also said to have been sponsored by the hospital authorities for Post-Basic Theatre course in 1987 and is presently the proprietor of Amu Medical Clinic registered by the Lagos State Private Hospital Authority and situated at 4, Church Street, Dalemo.

He told the court that Awoniyi was brought to his facility on July 6 at about 6:30 p.m. by the nurse.

He said the nurse told him that the lady had taken some drugs which resulted in abdominal pain for three days.

“When I checked her, I discovered that there was a foul odour emanating from her vagina and protrusion of the foetus which was already dead.

“The lady was cleaned and taken to bed to relax before going home. I charged N25,000 for the treatment but she said that she would contact her boyfriend whom I have not met before.

“This she did and the boyfriend said he would require my bank details to send money to me which he did not send up till now.”

He added that Kemi said she wanted to go home because she was afraid that her father would find out.

“She started feeling dizzy and I had to ask her to stay in the hospital  only to discover that she was pale. I immediately ordered that she receive two pints of blood,” he said.

Ogunlana added that the nurse had worked with him for six months as an intern and had brought many patients to him for abortion which he did successfully, adding that she got commission for any patient she brought.

It was gathered the the victim was six-month pregnant before the abortion was carried out.

Speaking at the court, the nurse said the lady came to her and told her that she was having body pains because of some tablets she used.

“I asked her to come back on Monday which she did and on that day, I realised that she had a very bad odour coming out of her body.

 “I took her to a doctor in Sango Ota who checked her and discovered that the tablet she took had affected her pregnancy,” the nurse said.

The charge against the duo read: “That you, Taiwo Ogunlana and Kafayat Oyekola, on the 6th day of July 2015 at Oke-odo area of Lagos State, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did unlawfully carry out abortion on one Oluwakemi Awoniyi, aged 31 years and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 145 of the criminal laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.

The two of them pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The magistrate, Mr. L.A Layeni, granted the defendants bail in the sum of N100,000 with two sureties each in the like sum. The matter was adjourned till August 31.

Two Zimbabweans Appear In Court For Helping American Dentist Kill Cecil The Lion

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Two Zimbabweans accused of helping an American dentist hunt Cecil the lion have appeared in court amid growing anger over the protected animal’s slaughter. Professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst (right) and local landowner Honest Ndlovu (left) allegedly assisted Dr. Walter Palmer, who has since received death threats, catch and kill the lion.

Dr Palmer claims he had trusted his local guides to meet legal guidelines on his trip to Africa, during which he shot Cecil with a crossbow on July 1 before skinning and beheading him. Continue…

The two Zimbabwean men appeared at Hwange magistrates’ court charged with poaching, about 435 miles west of the capital Harare and were both released on bail of $1,000.

The Zimbabwean prosecutors’ documents accuse Bronkhorst of failing to ‘prevent an unlawful hunt’ and documents say Bronkhorst was supervising while his client, Palmer, shot the animal. The court documents made no mention of Palmer as a suspect.

But Americans while reacting to the killing of the loved lion stormed Dr Palmer’s working place and home leaving different messages there for him. Dr Palmer’s whereabout at the moment is unknown according to reports but he has issued an apology letter which a lot of people say is not enough. See the protests in photos below;

A memorial set up for late cecil at Dr Palmer’s office in Bloomington, Minnesota, along with a sign calling the hunter a killer
     
Stuffed lions were placed at Dr Palmer’s house and protesters dressed as ‘dentist hunters’ while armed with squirt guns outside his office

Artful protest: Painter Mark Balma paints a portrait of Cecil the lion to donate to anti-poaching efforts in the parking lot of Dr. Walter Palmer’s dental clinic

Girl Who Was Told To ‘Stop Googling’ Cancer That Eventually Killed Her Left Heartbreaking Messages, Begging Doctors To Take Her Seriously

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19 year old Bronte Doyne begged doctors to take her seriously in a series of desperate messages written shortly before she died of a rare cancer that doctors told her she didn’t have and should stop googling about. A frustrated Bronte said she was ‘fed up of trusting’ medics who refused to accept she was dying. She eventually died in March 2013, 16 months after she developed fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, a rare form of liver cancer which only affects 200 people a year worldwide.

Full report From UK Daily Mail:
The teenager had an operation in September 2011 to remove the cancer and was told she would make a full recovery, but online research in America told her that FBC often returns.
But ‘aloof and evasive’ doctors at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) treated her with ‘woeful lack of care and empathy’ and refused to accept this and told her to ‘stop Googling’.
In a text weeks before she died she said: ‘Need answers. Want to know what’s going on. Something’s not right. I’m sick of this’.
And days before she died she wrote: ‘Can’t begin to tell you how it feels to have to tell an oncologist they are wrong. I had to, I’m fed up of trusting them’.
Today Bronte’s mother Lorraine Doyne (pictured right)  has made the messages public to reveal her daughter’s plight.
She said: ‘Bronte was denied pain relief, referrals were hugely delayed and efforts by her family to gather information and understand Bronte’s prognosis were handled in an evasive and aloof manner

HHer fears that her symptoms over the preceding months before she died were cancer-related were proved right.
‘The messages from Bronte are all her own words and I believe that’s more powerful for people to understand what she went through.
She added: ‘I want to see changes and action now.’
She and her daughter were forced to do their own research online, but doctors dismissed their fears.
Mrs Doyne said: ‘We had no information forthcoming and the only sources we found were through our own research.
‘We found a website for the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation, which is based in the United States, and it included an international forum.
‘It’s not just some pathetic website on Google, it’s been endorsed by the White House in publications, and was the only contact we had to get some awareness about this disease. But that information was dismissed here. I told the clinician that I knew what was happening to my daughter and something needed to be done but I was just told to “stop Googling”. 

Bronte was first admitted to hospital in September 2011 with suspected appendicitis, and was told she had fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma shortly after turning 18.
Over a 16-month period, she was told by doctors that she would survive the disease and had nothing to worry about after having an operation to remove a section of her liver in December.
But Bronte and her family knew through their own online research that there was a high chance the cancer would return and eventually claim her life, which it did on March 23, 2013.
The NHS trust who treated her has now promised to embrace the ‘internet age’ – and accept patients use the internet to research their illnesses –  and admitted: ‘We did not listen with sufficient attention’.
Bronte’s tweets, text messages and personal diary entries reveal her fears about death because doctors were not taking her condition seriously.
These were all passed to the hospital as part of a complaint after her death.
In a diary entry less than a month before her death : ‘Mum tried to talk to my consultant but he didn’t give her much help. She even had to ask him when I was going to get my appointment for the oncologist. Really don’t think he likes my mum asking questions.’
She also wrote she was advised by her GP to go to hospital as an emergency case when her symptoms worsened about six weeks before her death, but was told she could not been seen.
She wrote: ‘I got so angry because the doctor was so rude and just shrugged his shoulders.
‘He gave me a sarcastic comment like you can sleep here if you want but they won’t do anything. So I just have to wait for another hospital appointment.’
In a tweet before her death she also warned: ‘My body does not feel very good #helpme.’
After she was diagnosed, Bronte wrote in her diary: ‘I have cancer. I’m scared. Mum rang keyworker. Need to know what this is. He doesn’t know much. Help me.’
She underwent liver resection surgery in December 2011.
Seven months later, after doctors had told her she was fine, she tweeted: ‘My body does not feel very good #helpme.’
Then, in November 2012, Bronte wrote in her diary: ‘Feeling sick for months now. Tired of this feeling c***. Hospital not worried so trying to get on with it.’
The teenager texted friends saying that doctors referred to how she ‘had’ cancer in the past and advised her not to relate symptoms to the disease.
Her fears about feeling like ‘something’s not right’ were ignored, as she said a doctor claimed her weight loss was a result of her being ‘part of a skinny family’.
Bronte was eventually referred to the Hogarth Ward, a Teenage Cancer Trust unit, where she stayed for 10 days before she died – after 16 months of being told she would be fine.
 
Source: UK Daily Mail

Woman Dies Shortly After Getting Butt Enlargement Injections

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A woman from Maryland, 34-year-old Kelly Mayhew, died shortly after getting silicon injections for a butt lift in Queens, NY and police say the person who was performing the procedure was unlicensed and ran away from the scene.

Authorities say Mayhew and her mother drove to the Far Rockaway house to get silicone injections for a butt lift. During the procedure, which was being performed in the basement, Mayhew began to have difficulty breathing.

Her mother started performing CPR and asked the woman to call 911, but instead fled the scene, driving off in a gray SUV. Detectives are looking to talk to her.

By the time Police responded they found her unresponsive. She was rushed to St. John’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. EMS attempted to revive Mayhew, but they were unsuccessful.

Mayhew’s mother told police it was at least her daughter’s fifth cosmetic surgery.

The auapect is suspected of administering illegal silicone injections in a makeshift medical room in the rented basement.
Police and the medical examiner’s office are investigating what lead to the death.
Mayhew was a freelancer at BET Networks and worked at their DC office. A spokesman released the following statement:

“We are saddened by the death of our colleague and friend, Kelly Mayhew. Our hearts go out to her family, and we extend our deepest sympathies for their loss.”

Mayhew is just one of many victims who have died from black market buttocks injections

Mayhew’s autopsy was conducted Sunday, the day after her death. Results are still pending.

Source: New York Daily News