YOU CAN'T HOLD US TO RANSOM, DELTA GOVT TELLS STRIKING DOCTORS

*As Government plans to recruit new doctors
 
Asaba - DELTA State Government has condemned the strike embarked upon by the doctors in state hospitals, who are kicking against the signing of attendance register, among other grievances, saying that it had concluded plans to recruit new doctors to replace the striking ones.

Commissioner for Health, Dr Joseph Otumara, said this when he and members of the state House of Assembly Committee on Health, led by Mrs. Onyemechi Mrakpo, visited  some hospitals in the state with a view to ensuring that  the strike did not paralyse the health system.

The commissioner, according to a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health, Mr. Churchill Oyowe, in Asaba, yesterday, said  'the government is determined to put an end to the frequent and unnecessary strike actions in the state hospitals, because allowing the striking doctors to go away with frivolous excuses in the name of strike would send the wrong signal to other cadre of staff in the state.'

Dr Otumara noted that doctors were to be compassionate and see the human life as sacred, adding that the commercial inclination of some doctors had made them to lose bearing on the demands of the medical profession, warning that if they do not retrace their steps, they would soon lose relevance.