Hospitals discharge patients as doctors’ strike continues

As a doctors’ strike entered its second week, government hospitals in Nigeria have been turning away new patients while providing a minimum service for the critically ill, a medical source in Lagos told IRIN today. At the Lagos hospital, patients have been discharged in droves, according to the Nigerian daily ‘The Guardian’. No casualties have been reported. The secretary of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) in the eastern town of Port Harcourt, Charles Ngeribara, was quoted as saying: “Every doctor below the rank of consultant is on strike. The casualty ward, labour, children and emergency wards are empty.” In the southeastern city of Benin, people have started moving their sick relatives to private hospitals. The doctors are demanding better pay and working conditions.