We punish ill-behaved personnel, commend performing staff at UCTH- CMD, Ikpeme

The chief medical director of University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, UCTH, Prof Ikpeme Ikpeme has said in the last few years, the hospital has swiftly reprimanded many staff who showed poor conduct to work, patients, visitors or officials.

There have been reports suggesting that personnel at the facility are often negligent and exhibit rude attitudes during official hours, thereby putting patients off.

But Prof. Ikpeme on Friday, noted that tertiary institution, has begun personnel indoctrination to improve services.

His comments came during a tour of the facility by journalists in the state.

Speaking specifically about personnel training and conduct to work in the hospital, he said it was a continuing process, as human development is continuous. 

“But what we do to ensure that we get the right attitude to work is that we run a policy of reward and punishment.

“The hospital does not tolerate insolence or indolence in whatever form.

“If you do well, we tell you you’ve done well. We congratulate you. We clap for you. If you go against the norms of ethical civility, civilized conduct, we put you through a disciplinary process, and we make out the punishment that is recommended. 

“So we don’t hold back. We don’t support those who display the wrong attitude to work.”

The CMD encouraged members of the public to call him to redress issues using his numbers pasted on the hospital premises.

“So you can reach out to anybody at any time to seek redress. We are almost always in this hospital asking questions, trying to get people to do the right thing. And where we think there is negligence, I assure you, we don’t hold back.

“We hold a post-incident audit. So if we think you didn’t take care of the patient, the doctor didn’t take care of the patient well, we put a team of very senior clinicians together to grill you.

He, however, said that there are a lot of hardworking and decent personnel in the UCTH, and that he does not keep quiet when issues of poor attitude to patients and work are brought to his attention.

“We deal with the issues to inculcate the right attitude to work”, Ikpeme said.