The management of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, on Wednesday, warned its workers, including doctors, against shunning night duties, stressing that “whoever fails to report at his or her duty posts does that at his own or her own risk”.
The hospital workers, under the auspices of Joint Action Committee, had on Tuesday told The PUNCH that they were suspending night duties after the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company cut the power supply to the hospital over alleged N495 million unpaid electricity bills.
The JAC Chairman, Oladayo Olabampe, said the workers had decided to scale down their activities until electricity was restored, saying they would now work between only between 8 am and 4 pm.
The worker also threatened to go on a seven-day strike if the hospital was not reconnected before Tuesday, 9 April.
In separate interviews with The PUNCH in Ibadan on Wednesday, the JAC Chairman and the hospital’s Public Relations Officer, ‘Funmi Adetuyibi, disagreed over the planned scaling-down of operations.
While the JAC Chairman said there was no going back on the 8 am–4 pm work hours, the UCH spokesman insisted that the arrangement would not work.
The JAC Chairman said, “We have started since yesterday (Tuesday) and we are not going back. The workers took this decision due to a power outage in the hospital. So, with this development, no one would be available to attend to patients in the evening at UCH.
