Kaduna — All members of the six health professional associations working ingovernment hospitals in Kaduna State will today commence a three-day warning strike following the expiration of a 21-day ultimatum issued the state government.

The strike was also the result of the failure of about two years of negotiation between the medical workers and the state government, which also include the intervention of the state House of Assembly.

Following the action which had stripped all government hospitals of the presence of any medical staff, relatives with patients on admissions in the affected hospitals had already relocated them to private hospitals, while those unable to afford the services of private hospitals, took their patients homes.

Chairman of the State Health Workers Consultative Forum, Dr. Williams Ayet, who is also the chairman of resident doctors in the state, told THISDAY, yesterday that the state government had failed to respond positively to the plight of health workers in the state. He accused the government of further aggravating the whole situation by bringing in expatriat edoctors from Egypt and placing them on a salary scale that is 300 percent above what the health workers have been demanding for years.

Also, the health workers are asking the state government to increase the number of staff in all its hospitals as the free medical scheme of the state government to all children under the ages of five and pregnant women had resulted in increased attendance in hospitals.

Ayet, while stating that Kaduna state medical workers are theleast paid in the country, resulting in so many constantlytaking up appointment with other state, said what the state needs to meet the upsurge in hospital attendants is about 10,000 moremedical staff that will complement the 4,000 workers the state has.