Ward attendants at the Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja in Kogi State staged a peaceful protest on Tuesday in response to the death of one of their colleagues, Salamatu Aliu of Post Natal Ward.
According to reports, the deceased was transported to the hospital for medical assistance on Sunday evening but was not seen by doctors or nurses on duty due to a power outage.
According to an anonymous source, the late Salamatu Aliu was referred to Kogi State Specialist Hospital and died shortly after arriving there.
“This negligence of doctors and nurses in the Accident and Emergency Ward here in Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja is unbecoming. This actually led to this peaceful protest to register our grievances with the hospital management, that we are not happy losing our own colleague. The management must do something to avert future occurrences. All lives matter and are equal. They should stop treating us unfairly,” the source stated.
The protesters were eventually convinced to return to work after being guaranteed that the situation would be thoroughly looked into.
All attempts to speak with hospital management were futile at the time of publishing this report.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s legal counsel, Enny O. Esq., stated that the incident had just come to his attention and is being investigated to determine what happened.
A similar event occurred in the same hospital’s Accident and Emergency Ward few months ago, when relatives of a deceased patient assaulted some medical professionals over alleged incompetence. The terrible situation caused medical professionals at the hospital to take days off.