The industrial action called by a factional group of Lagos State Medical Guild began yesterday, taking its toll on some patients seeking treatment at state government-owned hospitals in the state.
At some of the hospitals visited by THISDAY to assess the impact on the patients, it was discovered that many waited in vain to have the doctors attend to them.
At the Orile-Agege General Hospital, for instance, only the Consultants and Heads of Department (HOD) were seen attending to patients. The process was very slow because of the large number of patients.
Also at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, only the consultants and HODs were attending to patients,
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported at LASUTH, administrative doctors provided skeletal services by attending to only patients above 45 years of age.
At the Out-Patient Department of the hospital, some patients told NAN that only two out of eight doctors reported for work.
At Ayinke House, the maternity section of the hospital, pregnant women waited endlessly for doctors with many of them asked to go home by nurses.
Dr Gbolahan Lasisi, President of the Association of Resident Doctors at LASUTH, confirmed that only the management staff were working.
He explained that the administrative doctors could only give appointments but not admit patients.
“We will see how long the consultants and administrative staff can go without other doctors; the Medical Guild gave the state government 21 days for negotiation which they failed to do.
“It is a pity that we have to resolve this issue this way. We have given the government enough time but instead what we get is threat of sack,” he said.
At about 2pm, the administrative doctors had stopped working, claiming that they were tired, the report said.
But in an interview with newsmen, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr. Femi Olugbile, said the strike was not effective at LASUTH.
However, members of Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), Lagos State branch, have dissociated themselves from the strike and appealed to the striking group to call it off immediately.
Speaking yesterday at a press briefing at the association’s secretariat, the chairman of the branch, Dr Anthony Omolola, said: “The primary calling of doctors is to safeguard lives of those who come to them for help, which should be regarded as sacrosanct and whenever there are issues in dispute, members should be very patient to exhaust all possible avenues at resolving the matter.”
He said his association is aware of Health Reforms going on in the state which it hoped would impact positively on the citizens of the state, stressing that in the process of implementing the reforms, the association is aware that some challenges will come up, which it believed would be effectively handled by the present administration in the state.
Omolola said the association was aware of a group already negotiating with the state government over the matter. “We in AGPMPN are aware of the negotiating group led by the Elders Forum of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the umbrella body of medical groups in the state and some concern senior citizens of the state dialoguing with the state government on behalf of the Medical Guild to reasonably meet their demands,” he said.
In view of this, “we are appealing to our colleagues in the Medical Guild to have a re-think and give these negotiating groups some time to complete dialoguing with the government,” Omolola said.
The association expresses appreciation to its colleagues that are currently rendering medical services to the citizens of the state within the medical guide.
Also in an interview with the state chairman of NMA Dr. Babafemi Thomas, he descri-bed the strike action as illegal, saying the masterminds of the strike are disgruntled members of NMA, who constitute themselves into state executives of the association in-spite of the court injection restraining members from holding election for appointment of state executive.
He said the factional group in defiance of the court ruling asking the NMA Lagos State branch not to hold any election purportedly held one last December to satisfy their “inordinate ambition” culminating in the call for general strike and described the strike as illegal.
The Medical Guild had given the government a 21-day ultimatum, asking the state government to meet some of their demands else they would embark on an indefinite strike.
At a press briefing on the commencement of the strike, the chairman of the group, Dr. Ibrahim Olaifa, had said the strike would be indefinite because “all the efforts to make the government to consider our demands have failed”.
To buttress his claim over lack of working equipment in the hospitals, he said “patients were dying daily at the state hospitals because the gigantic buildings lack basic life-saving facilities”.
According to him patients often attack physicians thinking that the doctors were frustrating their recovery, believing that government had already provided all the necessary facilities as it is often announced in the media.
He said, if you take the ambulance service for example, most of the victims of severe accident cases rescued by the mobile ambulances usually die in our hospitals because basic life-saving equipment are not available, stressing that the poor state of the hospitals are the main issue.
Olaifa added that, the most basic hospital equipment like Ambu-bags, oxygen cylinder and sunction machines were not available, but said apart from the poor state of the hospitals, members are also demanding a pay rise and parity as in the recommendations of the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Scale.
But reacting to the strike, the Lagos State Government has commended doctors in its employment for refusing to heed the strike call and urged the faction spearheading the strike to desist from going about trying to stop the working medical doctors from discharging their legitimate duties.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, while commending the working doctors after an on-the-spot assessment of the situation, reiterated government’s disposition to dialogue.
He said government viewed the call for a strike by the Medical Guild as “illegal and unacceptable” particularly since all the issues being raised by the guild were not only being currently addressed by the State Government but were also issues that cannot be addressed overnight.
He further assured the people of Lagos that all health services being provided in her hospitals would not be disrupted as Medical Directors have been charged to ensure uninterrupted health services.
Jan62009