Health activities across major state-owned hospitals in Oyo State have been severely disrupted as health-records officers, laboratory attendants, pharmacy technicians and other allied health-workers under the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) continue their nationwide strike. Visits to facilities such as Jericho Specialist Hospital, Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital, Ring Road State Hospital and other general hospitals in the Ibadan zone showed that the strike has forced many departments to operate below capacity, with only skeletal services available to patients.
At Jericho Specialist Hospital, health-workers in departments critical to patient flow including Records, Laboratory, Pharmacy, Radiology and General Support stayed away from duty, leaving long queues of patients unable to complete basic processes such as registration, laboratory tests or drug collection. Doctors and nurses on duty struggled to attend to patients, but the absence of essential support staff meant only emergency or very limited outpatient consultations were possible.
A similar situation played out at Adeoyo Maternity Hospital, where antenatal mothers, children and emergency cases were delayed due to the non-availability of laboratory services, incomplete documentation and limited clerical support. While wards and clinics remained open, staff confirmed that only “bare-minimum operations” were possible since the strike began, adding that admissions, diagnostics and drug dispensing were significantly slowed down.
Across other state hospitals in Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomoso and Iseyin, allied health-workers’ absence has crippled the non-clinical backbone of service delivery. Patients who require laboratory tests, imaging, record retrieval, drug refills or referrals are being turned back or asked to return when “full operations resume.” Hospital officials say the skeletal service level will continue until the government resolves JOHESU’s demands over the long-standing CONHESS salary adjustment, which triggered the nationwide action.