Nigeria: Patients Are King in Every Health sector, Respect Their Rights – Medical Director urges health workers
The Medical Director (MD), Federal Medical Centre(FMC), Keffi, Nasarawa State, Dr. Joshua Giyan-Ndom has called on health workers in the country to respect the rights of patients to medical care and stop incessant strike actions to press home demands for improved welfare packages.
Giyan -Ndom made the call yesterday while addressing newsmen at the medical facility in Keffi, Keffi local government area of the state.
He said that the call has become imperative due to the negative effects health workers strikes have on Nigerians, hence the need for the health workers to always resort to dialogue as a means of addressing their welfare issues for the overall development of the country.
“As we are all aware, any strike action embarked upon by the health workers in the country is always affecting the lives of Nigerians, especially patients in critical need of professional medical attention, resulting in avoidable loss of many lives.
“Because the strike action had brought untold hardship to many Nigerians especially the underprivileged Nigerians who do not have the means to access private health care services and it is our prayer that health workers would always eschew strike action.
“The rights of the patients also need to be protected at all the times in order to avoid unnecessary deaths, because patients are kings in every health sector as a healthy person can become a patient one day.
“It is in view of this, that I want to urge health workers to, as part of self denial, put the interest of their patients first, avoid strike action and embrace dialogue as the only wholesome method of addressing their welfare issues,” he said.
According to him,”FMC, Keffi is the only federal tertiary health institution in Nasarawa State, rendering services not only to the host state but to other neighboring states as it records a daily influx of patients with various degrees of health problems.”