5th November, 2010
The protracted strike by doctors working in public hospitals in Lagos State is taking its toll on hapless patients. In the absence of qualified medical personnel to offer patients succour at the hospitals, many are in the throes of death as the strike worsens and widens.
The state’s tertiary institutions have also been shut following the strike by lecturers who are demanding a better pay in consonance with what the Federal authorities pay their colleagues in Federal universities. In addition, the lecturers at the Lagos State University, LASU, want the Vice Chancellor, Professor Lateef Hussain, removed.
It does not augur well for the people of the state that two vital sectors like health and education to be paralysed for so long and government is pretending as if nothing is wrong.
The state governor, Babatunde Fashola must act now to salvage the situation before it gets out of hand.
The situation in the health sector is even more worrisome. Doctors under the aegis of the Medical Guild and the Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, went on strike on Thursday 13 August following the inability of the Lagos State Government to meet their demands. At the core of their demands is the implementation of the new Federal Government Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS, approved for their colleagues working in Federal Government owned hospitals.
The state government has insisted that it would be difficult to pay the new wage the doctors are demanding.First, because it was not included in the budget. Second, because its heavy cost burden of N1.8 billion monthly cannot be shouldered by government, in the light of other competing needs.
As matters came to a head, the government took the issue to the Industrial Court in Lagos and the court tried to resolve it to no avail.
Rather than find a common ground to resolve the dispute, the government and striking doctors are still talking tough, with the government even threatening to fire all the doctors. Human rights activists have also joined the fray. They want the state governor, Babatunde Fashola to quit if he fails to resolve the issue within seven days. These hardline positions have not helped matters.
It portends grave danger for a vital sector of the economy like health to be shut down for almost three months without any ray of hope for an immediate resolution of the trade dispute. It goes to show how insensitive the authorities are to the plight of the patients
In the interest of the dying patients, we appeal to the two parties to sheathe their swords and explore an amicable way of resolving their differences immediately. By their Hippocratic oath, doctors are supposed to save lives and not to watch their patients die.
Since the doctors have said they are not asking for the immediate implementation of their demands, but rather a firm commitment by the government that it would meet their demands at a specific time, the government should also come up with a concrete assurance that it would keep its part of the bargain.
This debacle in both the education and health sectors must be resolved now. Let Governor Fashola act quickly.