DOCTORS’ STRIKE: Patients groan, discharge selves
Though the nationwide warning strike called by the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, is expected to end today, there may be no end in sight to the action embarked upon by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, chapter of the association as activities there were completely grounded yesterday.
The situation is the same in all public health institution across the country. From National Hospital, Abuja, to LUTH, LASUTH, the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, and National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, NOHE, patients are complaining of ineffective services.
These developments came as Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, blamed incessant strikes in public hospitals in Nigeria on government policies.
The usual beehive of activities at LUTH was not in evidence as the Accident and Emergency ward of the hospital remained under lock.
According to Vanguard report, the atmosphere was that of abandonment, especially as there was no electricity in the hospital.
All the entrance gates, the report said were manned by overzealous security men who confronted reporters that entered the premises.
Further investigation it reported showed that while the hospital discharged some patients whose cases were critical to seek help elsewhere, families on their own took their relatives away for fear of their ailments degenerating.
Abandoned children
At the Paediatrics Ward, the newspaper reported that while some children have been discharged, those who are still there are not being attended to.
A woman, whose child was on admission and spoke on condition of anonymity, told the newspaper that the hospital management had been discharging children since Monday.
She said: “Before, nurses used to bath our children but today they just managed to give us warm water. We took care of our children ourselves; the only thing they did was to clean children in incubators.”
Asked if the nurses were also on strike, the woman said: “They even refused to attend to my son that has injection to take; not even to clean his wound.”
At the medical emergency, relatives of patients were seen moving their loved ones out.
Asked why, an aged man said: “You want to know? Can’t you see that doctors are on strike and you are asking me nonsense questions? Do you want me to leave my brother here to die? I beg you, look for another person to answer your question.”
President, LUTH-NARD, Dr. Omojowolo Olubumi, yesterday raised fresh demands stating that due to lack of appreciable progress made regarding their demands, the strike at LUTH would continue.
He said the doctors were demanding that LUTH management issue a letter to individual resident doctors, stating when clearly the tenure of their training based on the 2013 circular.
He said: “The duration of residency training in LUTH has remained a subject of controversy as the management has deliberately shrouded it in secrecy so as to be able to continue to perpetuate the policy of premature termination of employment and abrupt stoppage of salaries of senior registrars.”
Olubumi, who also demanded an immediate review of hospital fees, which had greatly affected their training, said: “As doctors, we are gravely concerned. There is increase in the number of avoidable deaths and morbidity due to inability of patients to afford these fees.
“For instance the price of minor surgery such as incision and drainage and suturing of laceration has jumped from N8,000 to N50,000.
“This has led to reduction in the numbers of patients in the hospital, thus negatively impacting on training of specialist doctors, especially those in the surgical sub-specialties of dentistry, obstetrics and gynaecology and surgery.”
He alleged also that there were no facilities, such as water, to wash hand after seeing a patient at LUTH.
He alleged: “No case note anymore in LUTH. We write with any paper, even with our phones; and these are confidential issues.”
LUTH threatens
At the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, the striking doctors said if their demands, which bothered on improved budgetary allocation to the specialist training programme, was not met by July I, they would embark on an indefinite industrial action.
According to one of the resident doctors in LASUTH, the present structure of funding the programme, which is supposed to expose them to both international and local training, is faulty and can affect the quality of their training.
At the National Hospital, Abuja, patients are complaining of ineffective services rendered at the hospital in the past two days.
One of the patients at the hospital, Olaoluwa Abraham, said it had weakened services in the hospital.
Meanwhile, members of the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, and the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, NOHE, has fully joined the ongoing strike to press home their demand for improved welfare of their members.
The members of the association took the decision to join the nationwide strike at an emergency meeting held Monday evening, where they directed their members to participate fully in the industrial action.
The officials were said to have gone round the hospitals yesterday to enforce the directive, a development that forced all NARD members to abandon their duty posts.
Consequently, patients in various wards at UNTH were left in the hands of few consultants and nurses who, sources said, were finding it difficult to cope.
The few consultants available were unable to go round all the wards, leaving most of the patients unattended to. Officials of NARD in the hospital could not be reached as they did not report for duty throughout yesterday.
The major drawback at the orthopaedic hospital is the shutting down of the Accident and Emergency unit which has prevented the admission of new patients.
Sources said that some accident victims taken to the hospital yesterday morning were turned back by security men at the gate because doctors in charge of the department were absent.
‘Blame govt policies’
Reacting to the situation in Abuja, President of Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, Dr. Steve Oluwole, blamed incessant strikes in public hospitals on government policies.
Oluwole said: “Strike actions by the resident doctors often provoke emotions and spontaneous reactions, which prevent in-depth analysis of the underlying problems and issues.
“We called on the Federal Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Labour and Productivity to avoid political decisions, agreements or memoranda that are designed just to make a striking group suspend its strike, when it is obvious such agreements are not implementable or will conflict with previous agreement with other groups.
“The two ministries should harmonise to put an end to the cycles of strikes over the same issues.”
Asked if consultant doctors could work effectively without the resident doctors, Oluwole said: “The teaching hospitals and many tertiary medical centres are designed to function with resident doctors working with their consultants.
“Any expectation that it will be business as usual without them attending to their duties is deceptive.”
He pledged MDCAN’s commitment to uninterrupted services in the hospitals, stressing that the confidence of patients in health care delivery could not be sustained by industrial actions.