Some medical workers of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Osun State have tackled the management for allegedly subjecting them to penury over 10 months of unpaid salaries.

The employees, who spoke with PUNCH Metro in different interviews on Wednesday, lamented that they had resorted to begging to feed their families due to the hardship the non-payment of salaries subjected them to.

One of the employees who identified himself simply as Ben decried that he had become incapable of feeding his family because of the non-payment of his salary since he joined the service of the OAUTH on December 13, 2022.

“I was given an appointment letter on December 13, 2022, after the completion of my medicals. I was posted to the place of my primary assignment. Since then, we have been in this sorry-case situation; no salary was paid to me as a staff member. I have rented an apartment and did a lot of things with my savings in the hope of recovering it when they would start paying me, but nothing came out from it,” he lamented

Another employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being penalised, stressed that the non-payment of salary and some unfair policies ravaging the health sector in Nigeria were factors forcing brains out of the country.

He said, “Some of the reasons why our medical practitioners such as doctors, pharmacists, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, radiographers etc. are leaving the country to the US, other European and African countries is because the ones that are working in Nigeria are suffering.

“Imagine a medical staff member working in a Federal Government teaching hospital for over 10 months without being paid one kobo because we have not been captured by the IPPIS due to one or two reasons best known to the ministry and the hospital management. Many lives are already miserable, Staff members are living in debt, families are breaking, many are not able to pay their children’s school fees, and some are depressed. How do you want that same worker to attend to a patient

He noted that all efforts to ensure that their pleas were attended to proved abortive while appealing to the relevant authorities to come to their aid

In the past, various health unions such as JOHESU had embarked on strike actions in solidarity with the newly employed staff to persuade the management to pay salaries but these steps yielded no positive result because the employees were always forced or threatened back to work by the ministry of health.

“In September 2023, some officials of the Ministry of Health came to the hospital to carry out a verification for the new staff members. It’s two months ago and till this moment, we have not heard anything from them. The staff members are still working, suffering and smiling.

“To well-meaning Nigerians and the constituted authorities, please save the soul of the newly employed staff of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital,” he concluded.

When contacted, the Chief Medical Director of OAUTH, John Okeniyi, directed our correspondent to a tweet by the Minister for Health, Muhammed Ali Pate, while stating that he could not make an official comment on the matter.

“I am not able to grant you any interviews formally or otherwise at this time because the Hon. Minister of Health (FMoHSW) has waded into this matter and I can only direct you to see his response to the issue on his Twitter (X) handle. I am awaiting directives from the FMoHSW.”

Pate had in a tweet on his verified X handle on October 13, noted that the investigation had been completed and the issue would be resolved soonest.

We are addressing the OAUTH situation. The investigation has just been completed on this unfortunate situation. We understand the difficulties being faced by numerous innocent health workers and will do our best to resolve it equitably,” he had tweeted