Oyo state government on Tuesday explained that the decision to sack 256 staff of Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital LAUTECHTH was due to the discovery of over bloated staff and financial leakages at the institution coupled with dwindling resources available to the government.
Commissioner for Health, Dr Azeez Adeduntan while briefing journalists on the development in health sector in the state said the remaining staff will henceforth get their salary 100 percent
He said the state had, therefore, addressed the perennial issue of funding facing LAUTECH hospital by rightsizing the workforce and increasing the institution’s subvention to N120 million monthly.
On the prayers of the Association of Resident Doctors, Ogbomoso, Adeduntan said there was a great likelihood that the 55 resident doctors redeployed will be returned to the hospital, while other demands for funding will be attended to within the next one week.
“The major issue of LAUTECH hospital is funding. Since we don’t have money, we had to think out of the box. The government sent a visitation panel to the hospital and the advice we were given was to right-size the workforce. We didn’t sack anybody but right-sized.
“We have over-bloated staff and financial leakages at LAUTECH teaching hospital and as recommended by the visitation panel, some were disengaged or redeployed. Within the next six to eight weeks, LAUTECH should have years free of industrial action.
“With the workforce, we have now, there is no half salary in LAUTECH hospital effective immediately. They will get 100 percent salary with the workforce we have now. They will now get their 100 percent salary as at when due and the resident doctors will also smile if they cooperate and work with the government.
“What has been bringing LAUTECH hospital backwards is the persistent industrial action and staff over-padding. The institution had 1,228 employees and with rightsizing by 25 percent, we have retention of about 650. About 55 of those resident doctors are likely coming back, while about 299 redeployed staff will be reabsorbed. Majority of those disengaged are those we can outsource their jobs.
“What we did is to make LAUTECH hospital viable. Two years ago, the hospital used to be given a subvention of N200 million. In fact, LAUTECH gets more than 50 percent as subvention while other teaching institutions get 25 percent. The government increased their subvention to about N120 million a month and with what they can generate as IGR, we will have a peaceful atmosphere in LAUTECH,” Adeduntan said.
