• Government Blamed For Dishonouring agreement
Recurring decimal has become an understatement for the persistent labour crisis plaguing the medical sector, where doctors and paramedics hold sway.
Last week, the nation woke up to experience, like the volatile naira, the health sector in epileptic fit. The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) downed stethoscopes, exposed lives of countless patients, whom they swore to protect and chose to pursue trade union matters instead.
As the hours lapsed in the course of the crisis, the toll on the patients kept rising and the patience of government with the doctors to stay action ran out, resulting in the purported mass sack of the residents.
Perhaps, following reason and wise counsel, on both sides, the doctors soft-pedaled on their initial stance, while the sack threat by government was put in the cooler for better dialogue to be done.
But as the nation was heaving a sigh of relief that NARD and its members were calming from the labour fever, another bubble burst in the same sector.
Within hours of suspension of NARD’s strike, the Medical and Health workers, working in tandem with Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and the Assembly of Healthcare Professionals (AHPA), put the Federal Government back in the public dock.
It expressed grievances over government’s unconcerned attitude towards agreement it reached with the Unions. Forthwith, JOHESU Chairman, Shaba Johnson Adetokunbo explained that its leadership rose from a meeting convened after failure of government to fulfill its obligation, commenced a seven-day warning strike. It took effect from Tuesday, June 22.
The entry of JOHESU is even coming with greater weight due to the number of affiliate unions involved: Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), and National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM).
So far, it does appear that the nation is in suspense over what would further erupt in the sector in coming weeks.
The Grouse
While the pains of patients and the public grow no less, the unions, from the statements of their executives and spokespersons, reveal common denominator: government’s inability to honour agreements reached with the various unions.
According to JOHESU, the grouse arose from refusal of government to adjust the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) dating back to 2010 and even payment of arrears.
It complained of non-promotion of health workers, especially, those in Assistant Directors and Deputy Directors cadres, as well as adjusting the retirement age of health workers to 65 years, a condition that applies to academic and research institutions.
Government, it said, should comply with the rulings of the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) and the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in favour of Nurses and Medical Laboratory Scientists in the implementation of the Job Evaluation Report of 2008.
JOHESU is also asking for restructuring of Teaching Hospital Boards, in which health sector unions would have representation and payment of specialist allowance to health professionals.
FROM another flank, the resident doctors’ union is unhappy that the Federal Government and management of hospitals only respond, when there is labour crisis, a situation, President, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital branch of NARD, Dr. Ado Ahmed, said was unfortunate.
Ahmed said, “we have peculiar problems at the national level and also in local chapters. For example, in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), we have our peculiar problems of paying doctors’ salaries in percentages. To be specific, doctors have been collecting only 25 per cent of their salaries.”
According to him, it even reached the extent that some notable members of the House of Representatives intervened and effected the signing of agreement between AKTH and National Orthopaedic Hospital, Dala, Kano, in the effort to finding lasting solutions to the peculiar problems facing them.
“To our dismay, when an agreement was signed between Hon Magaji Da’u Aliyu, Abubakar Nuhu Danburan, our Chief Medical Director, Prof. Aminu Zakari Muhammad (on one side) and the then President, AKTH branch, Dr. Abdullahi Sharubutu, Dala Orthopaedic Hospital honoured the agreement and implemented everything contained therein. The AKTH management failed in the implementation of that agreement,” Dr. Ahmed informed.
President, Lagos University Teaching Hospital-ARD, Dr. Akinkunmi Afolabi, said some of issues that led to the strike include nonpayment of monthly salaries to its members, in State University Teaching Hospital (SUTHS), with the months of nonpayment ranging from four to 10 months.
The Pains
When The Guardian visited LUTH, there were lamentations as patients, who refused to relocate, have been denied full medical care services.
Fresh patients were denied admission, while elderly ones, who refused to leave, were offered skeletal services by few nurses and other health workers around.
Some of the patients at the Accident and Emergency Unit, LUTH, prayed to God to touch the heart of both government and the striking doctors to ensure that they should be properly taken care of.
One of the patients, Idris Yusuf, said: “Our God in heaven, hear our prayers and come to our aid; touch the heart of doctors and government to end the strike. We are dying slowly, on daily basis. It is quite unfortunate that it is at the time we need adequate medical service, to enable us recover from sick bed, that doctors went on strike.”
In another ward, some patients that spoke with The Guardian said they had nowhere else to seek medical attention. They claimed their medical needs were peculiar and could not easily be handled at private hospitals.
One of them, who identified himself as Martins Ademola, and had been on admission for three months, said he was not in a hurry to relocate to any private hospital for financial reason.
He said: “I came here three months ago because I was involved in an auto accident. You do not expect me to leave now because I am almost healed. If I have to go to private clinic, where is the money? Also, they may not be able to take care of my situation very well, so I am staying here.”
Another patient, who spoke on condition of anonymity, accused doctors of causing his pains.
At University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) and the Braithwaith Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH), Port Harcourt it was a pathetic situation for patients.
Pregnant women at UPTH’s ante-natal ward, who were due for delivery, were referred to other hospitals, where they were expected to pay amounts ranging between N28,000 and N35,000 just for registration, after paying N15,500 at UPTH for registration.
The situation is not going down well with the expectant mothers, as they lamented the pains and difficulties they were going through.
One of them, Mrs. Agnes Weli told The Guardian it was very difficult for her to pay the initial N15,500 registration at UPTH, disclosing that her husband was sacked from work three months ago, and as a petty trader, she is now the bread winner of the family.
Consultants at BMSH were seen carrying out virtually all the services, but their output can be put at 20 per cent, given the number of patients seeking help.
Findings showed that the hospital management was not admitting new patients due to the gap created by the doctors’ strike; patients whose health condition have slightly improved were discharged.
Speaking on the development, Consultant Paediatrician at BMSH, Dr. Josiah Appolous said, “ it is very difficult to operate without resident doctors, because they are the foot soldiers, the consultants are few. Their absence makes the work more stressful and difficult because you have to stay longer and give your best.”
The Way Out
Dr. Akinkumi said the national body of the association has had meeting with Speaker, House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara, and several agreements were reached, and by next week, the national body might call for a meeting to work out solutions. He said there are some agreements reached with the former President Jonathan, which has not been fulfilled, but government is continuous and whatever agreement was reached with past administration should be honoured by present administration.
AKTH’s Dr. Ahmed called on President Buhari to keep a close eye on the Minister of Health to ensure a repeat of what happened between their association and last administration did not re-occur.
“We are also not happy to be on strike action, however, this is the only language they know and understand. You know Nigerians voted this administration into power with the hope that change, in all spheres of our lives, would manifest. But now, what transpired during former President Jonathan’s era, in the health sector, is still obtainable under this regime,” he worried.
