Resident doctors in Ondo protest assault on colleague and call for stronger security

After relatives of a patient attacked a colleague at Owo Hospital, doctors at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Owo, Ondo State, staged a protest on Monday.

The protest was organized by the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), FMC Owo branch, which said that assaults on doctors and other health workers at the hospital have become a recurring problem with insufficient sanctions.

While inside the hospital, the demonstrators sang solidarity songs and displayed placards reading “Say no to violence against healthcare workers” and “The hands that heal should not bleed.”

During the protest, Dr. Oluwadamilola Adeola, chairman of the FMC Owo ARD, explained that the peaceful walk aimed to raise awareness among the hospital community about the repeated assaults on health workers.

“It has been recurring. This year alone, we have had about three or four cases. Some are even unreported. We are standing to sensitise our people that enough is enough to assault health workers.”

“The hand they use should not bleed. The aim of this demonstration is to demand arrest and prosecution of perpetrators, and we want this done in earnest because our members are not satisfied with the slow pace of justice.”

“We also want armed security personnel at our gates so that our people will feel secure to work. We are also demanding a public apology from the perpetrators so that it will serve as a deterrent,” he said.

He added that if the demands were met, the current industrial action at the Akure annex of the hospital would be halted, noting that staff there are on strike because they feel unsafe.

He noted that the facility lacks armed security and that the gate is porous, calling for urgent intervention by management.

“We have a pending case earlier in the year where a health worker was assaulted and hospitalised. Nothing has been done. The person involved even threatened to return and kidnap and kill a doctor. We cannot wait until a doctor is killed,” he said.

He warned that without meeting the demands, the association could not ensure industrial harmony.