Over the last 12 weeks, strike- the six-letter word that sends cold shivers down the spine of the hapless Nigerian has had cause to rear its head in the health sector. A last-ditch attempt to avert the latest strike had hit the rocks,  Regrettably, the issue of strike has almost become a permanent feature in the nation’s health industry but even as government health institutions in Lagos are reeling under the onslaught of a paralysing doctors’ strike, worse may  yet  come if feelers from the aggrieved doctors are anything to go by. For the umpteenth time, doctors in Lagos public hospitals would  down tools for seemingly irreconcilable issues particularly, those connected to wages and conditions of service.

By Sola Ogundipe & Chioma Obinna

She sat dejectedly by the entrance of the mortuary of the Lagos State-owned general hospital. Her red, swollen eyes confirmed she had been crying. Apparently she was still in grief because tears were rolling down her creased cheeks. An elderly-looking man walked up and held her hand.  “Bola, are you still here? It is enough now, come, let us go home. It is finished.”

But the middle-aged woman would not be consoled. Her reaction was impulsive. Like a wounded lion, she sprang up and at the top of her voice screamed menacingly. “May God punish them all! May they never find peace! The blood of my children is on their heads. They killed my children and they will pay. My God will make them pay for what they have done to me.” Amid the wailing and screaming, she broke down and wept uncontrollably. “Don’t worry my dear,” the man replied. With his own eyes misting up, he said comfortingly: “God who did it after 15 years will do it again. For these people to let my prayers of 15 years to go waste like this, only the God I serve can avenge me.”

Tunde Ojo, as he later identified himself, explained that he and Bola, his wife, had been search of the fruit of the womb for the almost 15 years of wedlock. Tunde, a house painter by profession, said their prayers were finally answered when Bola became pregnant months ago after series of treatments. Their joy was multiplied when a scan revealed that she was pregnant with twins. Alas, the couple’s joy was short-lived as the arrival of their twins coincided with the protracted Lagos doctors’ strike.

*Doctors strike : A cross section of nurses at discussing

Bola had just put to bed at the General Hospital where she was referred from the neigbourhood health centre when the doctors downed tools across the State. The health facility, like others, embarked on mass discharge of patients almost immediately. The twins born almost six weeks premature were expected to be in incubators. But the Ojo’s swore they were so hard-pressed to afford services of a private hospital with the right facilities, they had no option than to go home and take their chances. The consequence of that development was disastrous as the twins developed complications and died within a day of one another.

It is not only the Ojo’s who are counting losses from the Lagos doctors’ strike. Tajudeen Ajani, a commercial bus driver was not even so lucky to live to recount his own bitter experience. Just last week, Taju was on his way to Oshodi through the Agege Motor road, when, a short distance to the destination, his vehicle was involved in a ghastly crash with a truck.

Three of the passengers reportedly died on the spot while at least 12 others, including Taju, were rushed to the State teaching hospital, Ikeja. As luck would have it, the incident occurred at the height of the doctors’ strike. The accident victims were turned back at the medical and surgical emergency wings of the health institution for the fact that there were no doctors on hand to attend to them. Worse still, the option of taking the victims to Federal health institutions in Lagos was unavailable because the incident coincided with the commencement of the three-day solidarity strike called by doctors in Federal hospitals in Lagos.

It was a fatal coincidence. Everyone ran from pillar-to-post, making arrangements to convey the victims to alternative hospitals, but so much time had been lost. The number of fatalities gradually escalated. Unfortunately, Taju was among those who gave up the ghost before they could be helped.  A visit to most government hospitals in the State showed empty casualty departments.

There were no cases waiting at the outpatient wards. In the admission wards, there was no sign of medical staff trying to attend to patients. The usual heavy rush of patients was absent. Even the teaching hospitals and its satellites had become ghost towns. To the informed, certainly something was amiss. But the mystery is not far-fetched. Doctors acknowledged as leaders of the medical team – were conspicuously missing. It was an aberration. Doctors were refusing to save lives. How come? This scenario has been played out severally in virtually all State-owned hospitals in Lagos over and over. Hapless patients  have had to cope with a semblance of health care services without doctors at their duty posts.

With thousands of patients unable to access medical care and more disturbingly, the rising death tolls, despondency and gloom mildly describes the precarious situation when one visits any of the Lagos hospitals in the last 12 weeks. Findings from visits to some hospitals in Lagos show that beehive of activities in the various hospitals which had over the years subjected the doctors to attend to at least 250 patients on daily basis disappeared from the facilities.
In some of the health facilities only two or three patients are sighted. While some wards were completely empty.

Patients waiting room rooms were deserted.  Although nurses almost assume doctors duties, they could only dress wounds, while other core medical services such as suturing and surgeries were suspended.  The absence of doctors made it difficult for other health workers like the pharmacists, laboratory technicians, record keepers to work. Even the doctors who volunteered on humanitarian grounds to attend to patients were not provided with the necessary consumables to work in a hospital setting.

Investigations also revealed that nurses who could neither sit in their offices resorted to sitting outside discussing due to the unbearable conditions of the rooms. Patients appointments cards are almost filled up yet they were not able to see their doctors as they were continually given future dates each time they make a visit to the hospital. Vanguard gathered authoritatively that countless numbers of patients including children have died.

An empty ward.

The scenarios above are just a tip of the iceberg. In the thick of the strike, dozens of displaced patients and their relations from the hospitals stormed the State Governor’s Office, protesting the pains the on-going strike action by medical and dental officers have cost them.

Although there are no details, widespread belief is that scores of patients might have died across the country as a result of the latest doctor’s strike. Many people have gone back to the roots and resorted to unconventional means of healing. Some who can neither afford to go to private hospitals or visit registered herbal medicine practitioners may have fallen into the hands of quacks who have been having a field day.

As soon as the dark clouds of uncertainty gathered over the health sector in Lagos, the residents knew they were in for trouble. But it is doubtful if anyone had the idea just how much trouble was afoot. In Lagos, doctors in the public arm of the sector are far from happy.

Their discontent and restiveness are palpable. The threat more agony from the  indefinite strike hangs threateningly over the State. The sigh of relief the nation heaved when the Governor approved a 75 percent increase in CONMESS among other demands, has only turned out to be a fluke.

Rather than subside, restiveness in the sector has escalated. Strikes by doctors this year alone have claimed the lives of thousands of patients and placed massive burden on ancillary services  such as churches, mosques, traditional birth homes and even the domestic home which have become emergency dispensaries. While the Lagos doctors’ strike lasts, the death toll of patients from treatable causes has been on the rise. Deaths recorded in the city of Lagos alone in the last one month alone are believed to have more than doubled, according to an independent source.

Over the last 12 weeks, strike- the six-letter word that sends cold shivers down the spine of the hapless Nigerian has had cause to rear its head in the health sector.

A last-ditch attempt to avert the latest strike had hit the rocks,  Regrettably, the issue of strike has almost become a permanent feature in the nation’s health industry but even as government health institutions in Lagos are reeling under the onslaught of a paralysing doctors’ strike, worse may be yet to come if feelers from the aggrieved doctors are anything to go by.