JOHESU’s Suspended Strike As Opportunity To End Strikes In Health Sector
AFTER 13 weeks of strike, medical workers and professionals under the umbrella of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) finally found a soft ground to suspend their strike early this week.
While many Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief over the suspension, it is however doubtful whether the suspension will be the end of strikes in the health sector.
JOHESU began its indefinite nationwide strike on November 12 over issues bordering on alleged refusal by the Federal Government to implement signed agreements. Some of the demands of the union included the immediate release of the circular on extension of retirement age for health workers, full payment of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) 10 salary arrears of members, among other seven demands.
While the strike lasted, patients were the worst hit, as some of them died of diseases that could have been easily taken care of in teaching hospitals. Many other patients however sought health care in private facilities which benefited from the strike.
Speaking with The Guardian on why JOHESU suspended the strike, JOHESU’s Vice President, Mr. Felix Faniran, said the suspension was a result of intense discussion between the union and President Goodluck Jonathan. “We had a private meeting with President Jonathan on Sunday evening in President Jonathan’s private residence. From our observation, we noticed that the Health Minister never presented the report of our meeting of December 22 to the president. The president however appealed to us to end the strike, saying that he was ready to do everything possible to end strikes in the health sector.
“He explained that that was why he set up the Yayale Ahmed Committee. And when we complained to him about our grievances against Yayale Ahmed Committee report, he told us that when the white paper on the report is ready, we shall be invited to make our input before a final decision will be taken on the report, so that there will not be area of conflicts. He urged us to suspend the strike, adding that after the elections, he would call us to look at the issues again.
“Based on our discussions, he directed the Minister of Health to hold a meeting with us the next day, and the latter did. We suspended the strike during a joint press conference between the Health Minister and JOHESU,” Faniran said.
Faniran, who is also the President of the National Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAPH), added: “We at NUAPH have also suspended our strike.”
NUAPH, which had been on strike before the JOHESU nationwide strike, consists of key health professionals, such as physiotherapists, medical laboratory scientists, medical radiographers, pharmacists, optometrists and dieticians. The union has been at the heart of the struggle to bequeath equity and international best practices to the health sector.
Could the intervention by the president to suspend strike not have been part of politics to win next week’s election? Faniran does not think so. The physiotherapist said: “As far as we concerned, we are not interested in the politics of bitterness. Part of the reason we took the decision to suspend the strike was to ensure that either party (PDP and APC) does not impugn any insinuation on the strike. Although the president has not met our demands, we just met for the first time. We do not want to input any political meaning into the president’s action.
“If we had insisted on waiting after the elections before suspending the strike, Nigerians would have suffered more. Since we have met with him as the highest authority in the land, courtesy demands that we should respect his office and give him the benefit of doubt. If we had told Nigerians that the president pleaded with us to suspend the strike and yet we were adamant, Nigerians would have abused us, saying we did not have respect for authority. Whether he has played politics with the strike suspension, as far as we are concerned, we are apolitical.”
While the strike lasted, the nation experienced the absurd in the healthcare system. While medical practitioners in Abuja and Asaba alleged that health workers under JOHESU were attacking them, JOHESU members in Asaba accused the medical professionals of running hospitals in the city with quacks.
In Lagos, the Lagos State Government forced the striking health workers to render skeletal health services. In the spirit of the strike, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, pharmacists and radiographers came to work only to attend to patients in mufti, a practice which is against medical ethics. It is a global practice for medical workers to wear lab coat or shrub while attending to patients. The practice is aimed at protecting medical workers against infectious diseases.
Also, as part of the fall out of the strike, professional associations, including the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Association Of Medical Laboratory Scientists Of Nigeria (AMLSN) and Nigeria Society For Physiotherapists (NSP) threatened to drag their members in the private sector into the strike, if the demands of JOHESU were not addressed within a week.
It is expected that with suspension, the president will use the opportunity to end strikes in the healthcare sector. Some observers believe that one strategy that may help in this direction is for the president to appoint a non-medical personnel as Health Minister. That was the strategy that saved the healthcare system during Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime when he appointed Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, a health economist, as Health Minister. Most of the recent Health Ministers, observers say, have shown bias for medical practitioners to the detriment of other medical workers and the healthcare system.
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