The Association of Resident Doctors in National Hospital Abuja have called for an intensified investigation of alleged assault on a Member of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives(NANNM) by one of their Member, Dr. Sunday Ikeyah Atinko, an incidence that occurred at the In-Patient Female Medical ward on Monday 13th June 2022.
Speaking to journalists, the Association noted that Dr Sunday Atinko had led his team to the said ward for a ward round on Monday 13th June 2022, to see a Patient after a theater session, whilst the Ward-round was ongoing, there arose a need for the Nurse in-charge of the Patient care to dress a septic wound for which Dr Sunday Atinko politely called on the Nurse to do but all his appeal fell on deaf ears but the Nurse instead resorted to use of foul and abusive languages and assault on the whole team when Dr Atinko insisted she dresses the wound.
The statement also noted that the matter has been taken to the Management of the National Hospital Abuja who are presently investigating the incidence and had called the Executives of both ARD-NHA and NANNM to cease fire whilst investigations are concluded.
To their chagrin, the Members of NANNM decided to desecrate constituted authorities and resort to a demonstration within and around the Hospital wherein they denigrated the images of their Colleagues, Dr Sunday Atinko being the most conspicuous, that the Members of NANNM also went ahead to send personal messages of threat to Dr Sunday Atinko and his wife and malign his images all over the Social Media space, hence this release.
According to the president of the association, Dr Ntunde while talking with AFNews Correspondent “investigation has been on but this press conference became necessary due to the threats and verbal abuse on the family of Dr. Atinko and the demonstration of the National Hospital Nurses within the hospital premises.
Dr Sunday’s wife, Mr Atinko also disclosed to AFNews that she has received a lot of insults and threatening calls from unknown numbers.
She said “this whole thing started escalating yesterday, I heard of the demonstration here, where they were saying that Dr. Atinko should go, you know talks like that.
They even took to social media, commenting on posts that he made maybe some days back.
“They posted pictures on his timeline, said all manner of things, said he is a wife beater, even when I tried to respond, you know, defend him, they said that I’m covering up for him, that I shouldn’t worry, that two of us will go to jail for covering up this kind of act. That they’re sure I’ve collected a lot of beatings, that’s why, I can’t even differentiate between right and wrong.
“They cropped up my pictures, and even went down to my children.
“There were some messages my husband received on his phone, where they said they were going to locate him and make sure they deal with him. He got calls from unknown numbers. It’s been going like that till this morning when we decided to come here.
“I consider this like a long time coming, because a case like this shouldn’t escalate this way. I think there’s an underlying issues on ground because some of the comments they made was that it will put a stop to all this rubbish between doctors and nurses. The way they treat nurses is part of the comments sent to me. They dragged my children into it, that they’re going to suffer, you know, things like that.” She said
The Association calls on the Management of National Hospital Abuja and the investigation panel to expedite action on this and call Members of NANNM NHA to order with immediate effect as such actions has threatened the fragile work place harmony they share with them.
