The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) chapter, yesterday staged a peaceful demonstration over incursion of snakes and other reptiles in the hospital.

Leading the protest, the President of the union, Dr. Waziri Aliyu, said the protest became necessary in view of the deplorable state of the hospital and non-regard for their welfare.

“The poor environmental sanitation within the hospital and its environs had led to our member being bitten by a poisonous snake at the staircase of the surgical ward. Sad enough, he almost lost his life as he suffered from envenomination as the hospital could not provide anti-snake venom for its doctor on duty for over 36 hours after the snake bite.”

Dr. Aliyu said facilities at ABUTH are in deplorable condition, adding that the hospital staff find it difficult to conduct simple investigation like X-ray, ultrasound or MRI, due to faulty machines.

“This is a hospital that has transfusion unit, which could not produce blood components due to lack of cold centrifuge, hence, it cannot be differentiated from a general hospital. We also have the problem of low residency training, refusal to reinstate the sacked resident doctors, skipped levels, victimisation of NARD members following involvement in the directed strike of June 2016, among others. If the management fails to meet our demands, our members would proceed on three-day warning strike from today (yesterday),” Aliyu said.

When contacted, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Professor Lawal Khalid, confirmed that there were snakes in the hospitals. He however denied that the hospital’s environment is in deplorable condition.

Professor Khalid said he has received the threat of the doctors to embark on strike, “but the doctors have been receiving their full salaries as at when due since August 2015; the only pending problem now is skipping, and it has to do with money. We have met with the Speaker, House of Representatives over the issue.”