By Ayodele Oni, Akure
Amidst fears that patients that tested positive for the Covid-19 pandemic are leaving isolation centres in Ondo due to lack of care, a medical practitioner has called for the establishment of an infectious disease hospital in each of the three senatorial district of the state.
The call is coming on the heels of the death of another doctor, who is in private practice, of ailments relating to Covid-19 few days after the demise of the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Wahab Adegbenro.
Making the plea in a statement in Akure on Thursday, Dr Thomas-Wilson Ikubese, noted that Ondo state had very few cases of confirmed Covid-19 until the lockdown was eased a few days ago with places of worship opened while people went about their daily activities as if Ondo state is immuned from the virus.
According to Dr Ikubese, former Presidential aspirant and convener of YesWeFit revolutionary movement, from the available statistics, as at today, Ondo state is gradually edging to becoming the Covid-19 hot bed in Nigeria.
“Last week, we lost the Honourable Commissioner for Health, Dr Wahab Adegbenro, to this ravaging pandemic and
just this morning, again we lost one of our senior medical dignitaries and former Ondo State Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Matthew Adeyeri to Covid-19, as several Senior Doctors, Nurses and Laboratory Scientists in the state are currently in isolation.
“The most unfortunate aspect of this development is that Medical Doctors in the employment of Ondo state government are currently on strike as government hospitals are no longer attending to patients.
“Even the doctors at the hitherto very busy and critical Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) have recently down tools, citing non-provision of Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs), non-payment of the Covid-19 allowance, non-payment of the agreed minimum wage, non-provision of Insurance for the front line workers among others.”
Dr Ikubese disclosed that the 12-bedded Infectious Disease Hospital in Akure has since been overstretched by several Covid-19 cases which necessitated his call for the establishment of more centres.
He advised the state government to call an urgent stakeholders meeting to review the current Covid-19 pandemic in the state as the current measures are obviously not working.
The medical practitioner also called for a parley with the leadership of the Ondo State Chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association to resolve the knotty issues raised as to getting the doctors to go back to their duties, urgently, to avert even greater calamities ahead.
“Your Excellency, as a politician, expectedly, winning the election for your second term in office is top on your agenda at the moment, yet, I appeal that this should not relegate your commitment to winning the war against Covid-19, which is currently ravaging the state.
“Many other relatively unknown and probably undocumented persons are dying of Covid-19 in the state. It only becomes news, if the dead person is in the upper social class,” he added.
