Obanliku tragedy- Health industry impacted by years of unemployment- Commissioner, Ayuk

The current status of the health and social services sectors has been attributed by Dr. Henry Ayuk, the commissioner for health in Cross River, to a decade of unemployed civil servants.

He remarked on Tuesday that the recent death of a woman during childbirth at the General Hospital, Obanliku, Ayuk, was now visible in the calibre of the staff and services provided.

You may remember that on Tuesday, October 17, a labouring woman passed away at a facility in Sankwala, Cross River’s Obanliku Local Government Area.

Gov. Bassey Otu ordered the rapid deployment of medical personnel to the facility in response to the community’s outcry over the tragic incident.

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The governor expressed his condolences in a statement together with those of the deceased’s family and the Paramount Ruler of Obanliku, His Royal Majesty Amos Item.

The commissioner told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar that, if the family agreed, an autopsy had been ordered to determine the cause of death.

Additionally, he declared that the government was taking immediate action to restore the general hospital’s full range of services.

“We are making sure that the appropriate staff are dispatched there; in fact, we have reassigned two doctors to the institution, and operations should resume in the next 24 to 48 hours.

“Also due to the shortage of workers in the state, particularly in the health sector, many of whom would be retiring in 2023, the governor has chosen to extend the employment of the nurses who would otherwise be retiring for an additional three years.

The state government is also considering calling back some retired physicians who are still in good health to work on a contract basis in the state’s health sector, he added.

In order to put together some incentives for medical professionals to be dispatched to rural towns, Ayuk stated that the state administration would meet with the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress and civil society organisations, subject to the governor’s consent.

One of the five LGAs in the Northern Senatorial District of Cross River is called Obanliku Local Government Area.

It is well renowned for having numerous hills and mountains that make it difficult to reach its settlements and development.