…as Nigerians call for dialogue to resolve the impasse
Lagosians who think they will soon access medical care from any Lagos state owned hospital may have to wait longer as the payment of the Consolidated Medical Salary and Professional Allowance (CONMESS) by the Federal Government to doctors working in federal health institutions have caused ripples in the health sector as doctors under the employ of the state government have vowed to continue its 9 weeks old industrial strike over the non- payment of the CONMESS.
To any individual following the development, the industrial strike which began from August 12 2010 till date has no doubt brought untold hardship and misery to Lagosians thus leaving the clinics and wards of the state owned hospitals open with no doctor attending to any patient. Interestingly, most private hospitals, of which one may not be able to guarantee its operational ability, have now become the last resort of most people who believe are reaping the gains of the current strike action by charging exorbitant fees for medical care.
A visit to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), the only functional health institution, within the last 2 weeks has witnessed large number of patients awaiting medical attention. Most wards like the Accident and Emergency session, Radiography, Olikoye Ransome Children Emergency Centre, to name but a few are filled to the bream with little or no space to admit more patients. Already, the hospital management expressed fears that the large number of people waiting for treatment might lead to the outbreak of an epidemic. However, this situation has also increased the hours patients have to wait before been attended to by a physician.
Lamenting his ordeal to BusinessDay, Ebele Enuani, a patient at LUTH said he had to wait for over an hour before doing his x-ray examination due to the large number of people waiting to be examined. He stated that this is has placed much pressure on facilities at the hospital as patients wait endlessly to be attended to.
“I can’t be able to afford the huge bills which private hospitals are currently charging. They are already making some fortune from the strike. Currently, I have to bear with the situation; it’s just that I have to wait for long hours and this is frustrating.”
For Amaka Okoye, she had to spend over three hours before she could do two medical tests and collect her drugs at LUTH. The same cannot be said of Taiwo Okundayo who lost the father due to late referral from a private hospital where he was receiving treatment.
In his words: “I took my father to one of the private hospitals at Apapa, Lagos where we were told a compulsory consultancy fee of five thousand Naira. We did as we were told. When his health worsened, the doctor never said referred us to LUTH till he was in a critical shape. En route LUTH, he died. While I was at LUTH to deposit his body at the morgue on Saturday last week, about eight bodies were deposited within a space of five hours with people wailing the loss of their loved ones.” And the list goes on and on.
In a bid to know current efforts made to resolve the strike action which has made patients pass through trying times, Ayobode Williams, Chairman, Medical Guild, which is the umbrella body for all doctors in the service of Lagos State with affiliates drawn from the Medical and Dental Consultants Association in General Hospitals along with the Association of Resident Doctors of LASUTH, said the Guild made only one demand to the Lagos State Government-the payment of the CONMESS with effect from August 2010 and their arrears withheld as from January to July this year.
Speaking to BusinessDay, he revealed that In September 2009, the Federal Government approved the payment of CONMESS package for medical and dental practitioners with effect from January 2010. According to him, in November 2009, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCAN) General Hospital wrote a letter to the Executive Governor of Lagos State Babatunde Fashola concerning the payment of the new salary.
“Currently, doctors in the service of Lagos State earn less than half of the monthly income of their colleagues in the Federal service despite the fact that they work more than their counterpart in the other states. We are ready for negotiation but the letter from the State Government stated that the government will pay us whatever it thinks fit and I am not sure we have asked for ‘whatever.’ Other requests include the reinstatement of our immediate past chairman, Ibrahim Olaifa, who was unlawfully dismissed, our union dues, and over taxation which we demand be corrected,” Williams disclosed.
With scores of people dying on a daily basis due to the inability of doctors to attend to them, calls have been made from several quarters towards seeking a lasting solution through effective dialogue between the Government and the doctors.
Executive Chairman, Yaba Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Jide Jimoh appealed to the striking doctors in Lagos to resume work as a matter of urgency in order to save the lives of patients who are dying in the hospitals. He stated this recently while donating an ambulance to the Harvey Health Centre in Yaba, Lagos.
According to Jimoh “It is unfortunate that doctors are on strike and patients in the hospitals are dying. This is the time for the state government and the resident doctors to dialogue and find a lasting solution to the incessant strikes. Though strike actions are bound to happen, the state government and the striking doctors should be considerate because they were playing with the lives of people.”
For Babatunde Fashola, Governor of Lagos state, while at the commissioning ceremony of the haemodialysis centre donated by MTN Foundation to Alimosho General Hospital within the week said appealed to doctors to come back to work as no amount of money paid to them can bring back those who have died during the strike action even as the government is open to dialogue with the doctors.
While Lagosians await the end of the strike which has crippled hospital activities, efforts should be made to resolve the various differences as more people are bound to lose their lives if nothing urgently is done.
Alexander Chiejina
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