The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has refuted claims that 70 percent of its members have absconded their duty posts in Kano State.
Recall that while appearing on the Channels TV’s Politics Today, one Muhammed Jamo, who is a public affairs analyst, had alleged that 70% of medical doctors in Kano had abandoned their duty posts for fear of COVID-19, “due to lack of Personal Protective Equipment, PPE”.
In a swift reaction through a statement on Wednesday, the Chairman of the NMA, Kano State branch, Dr Sunusi Bala, described the claim as unfounded and “deliberately fabricated to logically cause confusion in the state”.
According to the chairman, the NMA did not have a clue as to how and where Mr Jamo got the statistics of the doctors that abandoned their duties in Kano hospitals.
Mr Bala said: “We didn’t know how he came up with this statistic. No empirical evidence to back up his notion. By mere observation about the services in hospitals, one can never come up with these statistics because there has been a lot of changes.
“Medical services have been streamlined in hospital services in the wake of this coronavirus outbreak. It is not business as usual.
“Now, patients can’t come directly to see doctors, that is why some protocols had been put in place to avoid contracting and spreading coronavirus among the public,” Mr Bala said as reported by Daily Nigerian.
The chairman explained that at some hospital units, outpatients had to undergo screening before seeing doctors, noting that the measure was strictly to check the spread of coronavirus in the state.
He added that the number of outpatients and clinics had reduced at hospitals as part of measures to protect both health workers and the patients against the virus.
“That is why one could queue at some units of a hospital because the outpatients must undergo screenings before they see a doctor. A lot of protocol has been put in place in a bid to contain the spread of the virus among people.
“The number of outpatients has reduced and the number of clinics also reduced. We are doing this as a measure to protect ourselves and avoid replica of what is happening abroad where a lot of frontline health workers have contracted coronavirus,” the chairman added.
Mr Bala also attributed the low turnout of outpatients to the lockdown being imposed on the state, stressing that the doctors needed to be appreciated as most of them come to work against their families’ wishes due to the fear of coronavirus.
He, therefore, urged the public to desist from making comments capable of discouraging and demoralizing the health workers, describing Mr Jamo’s claim as sabotage to their efforts to protect the lives of the people.
