NMA orders doctors to withhold services following attack on medical practitioners by policemen in Maiduguri

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has ordered all doctors with the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, to immediately “withdraw their practice until such a time when the security and safety of all health workers and properties in the hospital can be guaranteed by the federal government.”

NMA gave the directive following a reported attack on medical practitioners with the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital by officers of the Nigerian Police Force over the inability of the hospital morgue to accommodate the bodies of slain police men brought in from Bama town.

The NMA in a statement by its President, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, condemned the attack which it described as “unwarranted brutality and assault of doctors and other health workers” of the teaching hospital.

According to the statement, NMA claimed that mayhem was unleashed on health workers, including the Acting Chief Medical Director of the hospital as well as patients, some of whom sustained various degrees of injuries.

The Borno state branch of NMA and NMA affiliate bodies are however advised to put in place special arrangements to safely attend to in-patients, particularly critically ill patients during this difficult period.