Unuevbo TV
Jubilation as Benin Specialist Teaching Hospital Receives First Batch of New Doctors After Two‑Year Employment Freeze — 78 Resident Doctors Resume Monday
The University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) has ended a two‑year freeze on the employment of resident doctors, bringing relief to patients and the medical community.
There was a palpable sense of relief across Benin City this weekend after the management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) announced the appointment of 78 new resident doctors — the first such intake since a punishing employment embargo was imposed in 2024. The decision, made public on Saturday, May 30, brings to an end months of tense negotiations between the hospital's board and the Edo State chapter of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).
The new doctors, many of whom have been jobless since completing their housemanship years ago, are expected to resume clinical duties on Monday, June 1. For a hospital that has been stretched dangerously thin — with long patient queues and exhausted junior doctors working double shifts — the injection of fresh hands could not have come at a more critical moment. "We have been waiting for this day for two years," one of the newly appointed doctors told Unuevbo TV. "It feels like a second chance."
Community leaders in Oredo Local Government Area, where the teaching hospital serves a population of over 400,000, welcomed the development with cautious optimism. While the immediate impact on wait times and ward coverage is expected to be significant, many are calling on the Federal Government to go further — to lift the embargo nationally and address the systemic underfunding that led to the freeze in the first place. For now, though, the white coats are returning to the wards, and for the patients of Benin City, that is a victory worth celebrating.
Stay tuned to Unuevbo TV for more on healthcare delivery and public service developments across Edo State.
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