After they were summoned to face a disciplinary panel for participating in a three-day warning strike, Lagos State doctors have embarked on an indefinite strike.
Lagosians may not be far from the truth if they claim that the only constant thing in the state's health sector is strike.
Patients and their relatives cannot forget in a hurry their loved ones who were victims of the eight months strike in the state that lasted from August 16, 2010 to March 2011.
While the public blamed government for not conceding to the demands of the unions, the doctors were accused of using the strike as a cheap bargaining tool for their needs.
The demand of the doctors like in other states of the federation since September 2009 has always been for the Lagos State Government to fully implement the Consolidated Medical Salary Scale for all the doctors in the state.
CONMESS is the universal scale of remuneration for all doctors in Nigeria regardless of location or employer. It was put in place to curb brain drain and correct wage disparity.
However, the four-year labour battle between the state government and doctors in its employ took a new dimension on Tuesday when all the doctors that participated in the three-day warning strike between April 11 and 13 faced the Personnel Management Committee constituted by the state government.
Reacting to the summons in Lagos on Tuesday, the Chairman of the Medical Guild, Dr. Olumuyiwa Odusote, alleged that the state used police officers and armoured vehicles stationed at the Lagos General Hospital, venue of the sitting of the committee, to terrorise and demoralise doctors.
Odusote said, "We are not animals or thugs that should be ridiculed or arrested anyhow. We embarked on a lawful strike. Government has pushed us to go on strike. We hereby declare that the Guild will be going on an indefinite strike till this is resolved. It is an insult to professionals like us. Some of our members would be facing disciplinary committees. We are just fighting for our rights and our demands are not out of place.
"We lost so much in reputation and lives of patients during the eight-month strike last year. Now government has provoked us to go on another one. Let us save Lagosians from going to hospitals that are locked due to strikes. We are saying pay CONMESS, pay teaching allowances and reduce taxation. Why subject doctors to public ridicule when we are supposed to be saving lives."
Also, the Chairman, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Lagos State Chapter, Dr. Adebowale Adekoya, who spoke at the venue of the inquiry on Tuesday, said it was a rude shock to discover that consultants and specialists had been summoned to face the panel with government threatening to sack any of them.
Adekoya said, "If they want to sack, then we say sack over 1,100 doctors that participated. An injury to one is an injury to all. Sack all of us. The doctors' strike is not the first in Nigeria and none of those unions has been sacked. So we are waiting for Lagos State to make history. We are workers not slaves. How can consultants and even those in the emergency unit be asked to face panels when they are supposed to be attending to patients in critical conditions. All the time spent on issuing queries to all the doctors could have been spent negotiating with the guild to broker peace.
Falomo said although the Federal Government is paying CONMESS, it may be impossible for some state governments to comply due to the limited resources and their huge workforce.
"The Federal Government does not have as many hospitals as the state governments and has a lot of money. Doctors should not use Lagos as a testing ground. The Federal Government cannot create a problem for Lagos State to suffer for it. Fashola may not be able to meet what the Federal Government has met totally; he does not have the same resources. We were here before these doctors as far back as 1971 when we had little or nothing. We had strikes but they never lasted one or two months. Never! Then something must be wrong about the leadership. Consultants and specialists must not leave their patients on the bed. It is unfair. Government must take a firm stand and not let sick people fight for themselves. It is from time immemorial that we know that doctors have a duty to save the lives of their patients no matter their grievances."
Falomo, who is also Chairman, Lagos State Medical Advisory Committee to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola(SAN), urged the doctors to see reasons with their employers and build the broken confidence of patients in the state's health care services.
"If your employer gives you a query, you must answer it. That is integrity and honour. Doctors cannot employ themselves. That they are on strike again is disheartening. Patients are now scared of going into hospitals. We must not wait until patients start to sue doctors. I am one of the people who formed the Medical Guild but it was not supposed to be a cowboy organisation."
Also, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, who spoke on the labour dispute in Lagos on Saturday, urged the doctors to negotiate with the government on CONMESS as it best suited the situation in the state.
Chukwu said, "The difficult area in CONMESS that has caused several strikes is the part of paying teaching allowances to house officers. Although federal doctors are earning it, it may be difficult for the state to pay. Honestly, house officers are learning under consultants, so who are they teaching? They should go back to work and continue negotiating. Lagos State government has been doing fairly well in the health sector and doctors should work with them to uphold it
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