Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH’s Management, yesterday the 11th May 2020 debunk claims that the hospital sacked 25 of their resident doctors amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, saying rather, the hospital extended the tenure of the Resident Doctors . Recall that President of the National Association of Resident Doctors, JUTH branch, Dr Stephen Lukden, had said 25 of his members received their letters of terminations without any cogent reason to back up the management’s decision Healthforbes Media reports.
Lukden, among others, said : “Yes it is true. 25 Resident doctors received letters of termination of their residency training and we have information that some will receive theirs in the weeks/months to come. We have not seen this kind of thing before” But JUTH in a statement by its Chief Medical Director, CMD, Professor Edmund , said “The attention of the Management of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH has been sadly drawn to the unfortunate allegation of “sack” of 25 Resident Doctors in the hospital. It should be noted that Management has not “sacked” Anybody Resident Doctor, rather the tenure of their training programme had expired since 2018.
“The Board of Management had granted one year extension with a further two months that would terminate on 30th June, 2020 to this group of Residents that have exhausted their tenure. Rather than thanking God and Management, the Residents have decided to embark on a voyage of systematic campaign of discrediting Management for her good intention. “It is a truism that the Residency Training period is tenured and those Residents who have exhausted their tenure must exit to pave way for the admission of new Residents. Over the years, Management had been magnanimous in exiting Residents with lapsed tenure. This magnanimity is clearly seen in several extensions granted to Residents to enable them write their Postgraduate examination either at Part I or Part II levels. “For the avoidance of doubt, JUTH has remained among the best training institutions in the country with close to 500 Resident Doctors in training.”