Patients and Relatives are groaning under the effects of the nationwide industrial action embarked upon by resident Doctors just as the strike enters week one this Monday.
In Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, they expressed their displeasures, stressing that the financial costs incurred while being referred to other health facilities for treatment were becoming very unbearable.
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A visit to one of the Bayelsa State-owned healthcare facility, the Diete koki Memorial Hospital in Yenagoa showed various wards fully occupied by patients.
The health facility is the only public hospital in the state where Doctors are yet to down tools.
Some health officials on duty said the workload in the hospital have outweighed the manpower since the strike began.
Relatives of patients who were referred from another hospital due to the non-availability of Doctors attention said they were not finding it easy, noting that the situation has prolonged the time of being discharged as well as increased their financial burden.
While the federal government has threatened to apply the no work – no pay policy, the striking Doctors have also insisted they will not succumb until their demands are met, leaving the poor masses to bear the brunt.
(Editor Paul Akhagbemhe)
