Normal services were disrupted for a few hours yesterday at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, as doctors and security personnel engaged each other in a scuffle over possession of an office space within the hospital’s premises.
According to the Vanguard, the office space had served as the secretariat of the
of the LUTH branch of the Association of Resident Doctors, LUTH-ARD, had earlier been taken over by the hospital management two days ago. But the move was resisted by the aggrieved doctors.
This resulted in a scuffle that has left some of the doctors and the security officers were injured with the Police being brought in to bring the situation under control.
The real reason behind the disagreement was not clear, however, the management had stated that it had issued a six-month notice to the doctors as it considered the office spaces as a security risk and had hoped to convert it into a ward to maximise its use.
However, this was disputed by the doctors who alleged that the management brought in security personnel to forcefully eject them from the said office space without prior notice.
The Chief Medical Director of the Hospital, Prof Chris Bode had indicated that they had received reports of the office space being a security threat and had twice issued them a quit notice, before finally swinging into action.
He also added that the occupants had stubbornly refused to vacate the office space and had resorted to threatening the lives staff before the management took decisive action to evict them finally.