The spates of strikes by Nigerian doctors is really unbecoming
and government should do something drastic about it as a
matter of urgency. These people are meant to value and save
lives,but Nigerian doctors are sadly the opposite of these. In
a year alone Nigerian doctors must look for one or two flimsy
reasons to embark on strike actions thus, causing problems
for everyone. Its really no wonder most Nigerians who have
the means always resolve to travel out for medical treatments
than do it here in the country. It is no wonder!
Hope deemed for patients abandoned at the University
of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Enugu, on Sunday,
as the striking Resident Doctors have resolved not to
call off their strike.
Although the strike has lasted for two months, the
doctors have received their salaries for the same
period.
They have, however, insisted that unless the skipping
allowances and other demands made by the medical
workers union were resolved, they would not return to
work.
The Chief Medical Director of UNTH, Dr. Christopher
Amah and other management staff had held talks with
the aggrieved medical workers comprising Resident
Doctors, Medical Officers and House Officers between
July 5 when the strike commenced and last Friday,
September 11, pleading with them to call off the strike
in the interest of the suffering patients.
The CMD had explained to them that there was no
circular from the Federal Ministry of Health authorizing
implementation of the skipping allowance, assuring
that once the fund was appropriated in the next budget,
the management would not hesitate to pay the
allowances.
It was gathered that while some leaders of the medical
workers union had agreed to suspend the strike, having
investigated and realized that there was no fund
actually released to the hospital for the payment, some
officials of the union, led by the Chairman, Association
of Resident Doctors, Dr. Aloy Ugwoke, vowed to
continue with the strike.
The Ugwoke-led group, which met last Friday,
according to one of the union leaders, took a decision
not to resume work, demanding that the management
should release funds from the Internally Generated
Revenue, IGR, to pay the skipping allowances.
The management was said to have explained to the
aggrieved medical workers that the IGR was not meant
for the settlement of workers’ entitlements, adding that
with the recent directive on the operation of single
treasury account by the Federal Government, such
expenditure could not be authorized by the hospital but
this fell on deaf ears, as the doctors were bent on arm-
twisting the CMD to settle the arrears.
“It is becoming very clear to us that some of our
colleagues in the medical sector have other motives
beyond the implementation of the skipping allowances,
which was our main reason for embarking on the strike
since July.
“They want to play politics with the strike which many
of us have said it is no longer necessary because our
colleagues in other teaching hospitals have already
called off the strike having realized from investigations
that no fund has been released for payment of what we
are demanding,” an official of the union said on
Sunday.
He disclosed that many of the striking doctors who are
sympathetic to the plights of the patients, had during
the union’s meeting last Friday, expressed their desire
to return to work more so when they had been paid for
the period they did not work, but this was turned down
by some union leaders “who are bent on causing
unnecessary trouble in the hospital.”
Investigations revealed that many of the striking
Resident Doctors who own private clinics had been
diverting patients to their clinics since the strike began
while those patients, who could not afford to pay the
high bills charged by such clinics, have continued to
besiege the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital,
Parklane, Enugu, which had been under intense
pressure on account of the increasing number of
patients flooding the hospital daily.
Following the directive by the Federal Ministry of Health
to the Teaching Hospitals nationwide that
implementation of skipping be suspended since there
was no fund appropriated for it in this year’s budget,
medial workers at other Federal Teaching Hospitals in
Calabar, Ibadan, Lagos, Nnewi and the National
Orthopeadic Hospital, Enugu have since called of their
strike.
However, they were said to have signed a Memorandum
of Understanding, MoU, with their management,
agreeing to implement the skipping allowances as soon
as funds were available for it.
Other workers of UNTH, who spoke on the development
at the weekend, said that the insistence of the UNTH
doctors to continue with the strike might have been
influenced by a Consultant who had been seeking ways
of causing trouble in order to sabotage the activities of
the hospital, especially the Open Heart Surgery
programme of the hospital.
The Consultant was said to be eyeing the position of
the CMD but failed to achieve his ambition following
the endorsement of Dr. Amah’s second term.
At present, the hospital is unable to admit new patients
into the wards, while doctors are not available at the
General Out-Patients Department, GOPD, leaving only
the Emergency, Cardiothoracic, Intensive Care, Renal
Units, Ante-natal clinic and the Eye Theatre as the few
departments still rendering services.
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