Doctors’ strike, avoidable deaths

Vicious circle of skeletal health services

The outpatient ward at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) is filled, with scores of people waiting to be attended to. The story is the same at the paediatric ward of the teaching hospital, where medical staff move to and fro, trying to cope with the pressure associated with the influx of patients. At Gbagada, Isolo and other state-owned general hospitals in Lagos state, the same situation plays out on a daily basis. Patients are anxiously awaiting an end to the current standoff between the government and medical doctors, which has negatively impacted health services.

Curiously, besides nurses, ward aides, cleaners and a handful of non-medical staff, doctors who are acknowledged leaders of the medical team are conspicuously missing from their duty posts. This development has been making the rounds in some state-owned hospitals across the Federation since last week, and has spurred affected health institutions to offer skeletal healthcare services, even without doctors at their duty posts.

An overview of the nation’s health sector from January 2010 till date reveals that there have been several setbacks following incessant strikes by doctors. It is even more alarming when one considers that embarking on strike is equivalent to refusal to perform the most basic function of a medical doctor, which is to save lives, an act contrary to the medical profession’s famous Hippocratic Oath. Observers note that the impact of the series of strikes may not only deepen the problem of poor infrastructure in the nation’s healthcare system, but heighten the collapse of the far less impressive primary and secondary health care delivery systems in the country, if nothing is urgently done to check the trend. Worse still, others maintain, when innocent Nigerians lose their lives unnecessarily during these strikes, no one bears the repercussions. Indeed, who asks questions when there is no respect for the noble call to save lives? they ask.

As stated by a section of the public during a recent debate, although doctors command much respect within medical circles and society at large, their penchant to frequently utilise strike as a weapon whenever there is disagreement with their employers, notably government, is fast eroding the level of confidence their clients repose in them.

As some of the most respected professionals in the world, medical doctors are expected to toe the path of dialogue and exhaust all avenues for the sake of their patients. Just like the traditional saying which reads, “When two elephants fight the grass suffers,” The Nigerian masses have been at the receiving end since the strike in hospitals across the nation started. It is no longer news that the latest strike was sparked off by the recent Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) approved by the Federal Government for doctors in its employ. Since the approval, controversy has trailed the salary structure, as doctors in all the states across the Federation have been agitating that the scale be reflected in their own states.

In Lagos, the Medical Guild, representative organ of all doctors in the state and affiliate bodies that include the Association of Resident Doctors, LASUTH, the Medical and Dental Consultant Association of LASUTH and General Hospitals, embarked on strike last Thursday, over what it termed the state government’s insensitivity towards the implementation of CONMESS, among other sundry issues. Ayobode Williams, chairman, Medical Guild, Lagos, explained that “the congress decided to withdraw its services in all Lagos State government hospitals until all CONMESS arrears from January 2010 are paid immediately, All court processes against the Medical Guild must be withdrawn and no single member of the association should be victimised consequent to the industrial action.” At the other divide, the National Industrial Court enjoined the National Association of Resident Doctors and the Medical Guild to call off their strike action as a matter of urgency, just as it directed the Lagos State government to hold a meeting with representatives of the striking doctors within the week, with a view to resolving the issues in dispute.

Jide Lawal, public relations officer (PRO), Lagos State Ministry of Health, explained that the directive was pursuant to the provisions of Section 20 of the NIC Act in the suits number NIC/LA/28/2010 and NIC/LA/29/2010 between the Attorney General of Lagos State and the Association of Residents Doctors on one hand, and the Medical Guild on the other. Lawal disclosed that the court urged the government not to penalise or victimise any of the doctors for their participation in the strike action, but urged the striking doctors to avail themselves of the window provided by the court’s directives to both parties and toe the path of dialogue, in order to find an amicable solution to the present crisis.

Notable among these agitators are the Oyo, Ogun, and Katsina chapters of the Association of Resident Doctors. The affected state governments have, at a separate forum, stated that much as they would want to meet the demands of the doctors, they cannot afford to pay the huge wage bill that the new salary scale would amount to.

As the situation currently reflects, many states may be unable to meet up with the new scale. But sadly, as the strike action continues, the loser in the whole affair is the patient.

Consequently, concerned stakeholders and close observers of the health industry are now of the opinion that the state governments and Nigerian doctors are playing politics with the lives of helpless Nigerians who depend on them for their health needs.


Alexander chiejina