By Doris Obinna and Henry Uche, Lagos

Following the ongoing strike action by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), activities at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) was partially grounded as consultants and non-members of ARD LUTH were sighted working in a less busy hospital environment.

According to a source, patients have been asked to go home to seek treatment elsewhere. At the emergency ward, there’s only one patient who is a staff of LUTH.

Speaking with the president of ARD LUTH, Dr Hassan Jimoh said the resident doctors in LUTH are in full compliance with the national strike, saying they’re not intimidated by the threat of Labour Minister Chris Ngige.

According to him, the Federal Government has not been in touch with the realities on the ground health-wise, neither are they sympathetic with the plight of the masses especially those who need medical services from government-owned health facilities.

‘We are not backing out. We are not intimidated neither would they cow us after all, after 155 days FG failed to keep their words because they are not sincere, the ‘no work no pay’ threat is laughable and cannot work, this is not the first time. We are working for the benefit of all. The infrastructure is decayed, the welfare is horrible and other things that grieve us. We have gotten to a broken limit.

‘Not until they do what they signed, we are not going back. Why are we having a high level of brain drain? We wanted to go on strike internally because of so many abnormalities here in LUTH before the national strike was announced. We have taken FG’s deception for long, but this time we must get it all right. We cannot go to work. We cannot tolerate these unfeasible promises,’ he said.

He queried the motivation and possibility of a doctor who has not received his salary for six (6) months, for instance, to take care of a patient, stressing that the labour minister gets health services from Nigeria health facilities, he won’t take resident doctors for granted.

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‘The families of our colleagues (19) of them who died last year in the heat of COVID-19 nationwide are ignored. It could have been me! We lay down our lives for Nigerians but the Federal Government take us for granted. Other medical practitioners are working skeletally but they’ can’t perform maximally without us. They’re overwhelmed.’

He added that ARD members in LUTH had proposed to embark on strike before the national strike due to some Federal Government’s lackadaisical attitude towards them.

‘We have not been provided ‘Call food’ for over 22 months, even the ‘Call Rooms’ are in a deplorable state. In fact, most residents doctors on nights duty sleep in their cars, one of us used to drive to Island to take his birth very early in the morning and rush back to work,’ he bemoaned.

The NARD demands include the domestication of medical residency training act 2017, health instance issues, reluctance by FG to migrate resident doctors from GIFMIS to IPPIS, non-payment of house officer’s salaries, delay in disbursement of medical residency training fund, non-payment of national minimum wage consequential adjustment, abolishment of bench fee for outside postings.

Meanwhile, the chief medical director of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Professor Adetokunbo Fabamwo in a telephone interview said there were no patients in the hospital owing to the strike action however patients have alternative sources of medical services.

According to him, Lagos State is well covered regarding health services since resident doctors in the 27 general hospitals in the state are not members of NARD. ‘The strike is ongoing. There are no patients, but they have alternatives, other hospitals are fully operational in the 27 local government areas of the state,’ he affirmed.

Similarly, head, corporate services (office of the PRO) LUTH, Fakeye Omolola, maintained that other strata of the hospital have been operating despite the strike action by NARD.

‘The consultants are working, medical officers are on the ground and the interns are as well. Though the strike action is affecting other sections just as a pain in one part of the body would affect the entire body system, so it is,’ she stated.