Prosecute perpetrators of violence, NMA charges members

Sat, Jan 18, 2020
By publisher
2 MIN READ

Health

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has advised its members, affiliates and state branches to prosecute perpetrators of violence against any health worker.

Dr Francis Faduyile, the NMA president, gave this advice in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

He said this while reacting to the assault of a female medical doctor at the Maitama General Hospital by relatives of a patient who passed on while under the care of the hospital.

He said the vicious attack took place on Jan. 5, two days after the demise of the patient.

According to him, there’s a rise in the trend of assault on healthcare workers in general across the country in recent time.

He said that NMA would no longer tolerate any act of assault and molestation of her members nationwide.

According to him, Nigerian doctors are committed to the delivery of effective healthcare to the populace and this cannot be achieved when the healthcare team works in a volatile environment with incessant threat to the lives and property of team members.

NMA calls on government at all levels, relevant agencies of government and management of healthcare institutions to put in place genuine security measures that will help to put an end to the violence.

“The rise in the cases of assault on medical and dental practitioners and the entire health workforce is unacceptable.

“NMA also call on the Inspector General of Police to urgently revisit the proposals made by the NMA at the courtesy visit to his office in 2019, on the need to set up a special task force to ensure 24 hours security for health workers while on duty,” he said.

He added that the NMA was worried about the lukewarm responses of security agencies and other stakeholders to this callous act mostly perpetrated by patients’ relations and surprisingly patients themselves.

“The NMA strongly condemns this barbaric denudation of the female physician’s dignity, human rights and physician autonomy,” he added. (NAN)

– Jan. 12, 2020 @ 13:09 GMT |

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