Doctors of state-owned hospitals in Osun state have been sacked by the state Governor, Rauf Aregbesola.
The doctors who have reportedly been on strike for the past few month were sacked by the state’s government, according to the Chairman, Special Committee on Health, Simon Afolayan, who announced the mass lay off of the doctors in Oshogbo on yesterday, February 19.
Afolayan revealed that, due to the absence of the striking doctors from their work for more than six months, the state government assumed that they had resigned their appointments.
According to him,“Doctors are parts of the civil service and by the civil service rule you cannot abandon your duty post for six months without reason and not face the consequences. If you do so, it is deemed that you have resigned your appointment. This rule has taken effect.”
Afolayan then gave the doctors a lifeline by insisting that, the ones who are still interested in working with the state government should reapply.
Insisting that, the government could not afford to pay the doctors’ salaries in full as a result of the prevailing financial crisis in the country.
He concluded that, the doctors demands were impossible and might lead the state to complete anarchy if the government agreed to it.