Barley eight days after the resumption of the suspended 14- week old strike called by the Medical Guild, which is a body of doctors employed by the Lagos State government, patients seeking medical attention at the public health services have suffered untold hardship. Why have the doctors remained adamant despite the new offer by the State Government.? In this interview with Chioma Obinna and Olayinka Latona, Dr. Saheed Babajide, Executive General Secretary of the LASUTH Association of Resident Doctors, (LASUTH-ARD), explains what is amiss.

Excerpts:

Why strike was resumed

This strike is unfortunate. We did not expect it to commence because we thought our agreement with the state government would be implemented to the letter. Unfortunately government reneged in the implementation of the agreement. After calling off the 14-week-old strike, there was an agreement between us and the government in terms of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), reduction of tax, reinstatement of our sacked immediate chairman. But this agreement was not fulfilled. In December, we wrote three letters to the government. The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) ordered all the states that have not started full implementation of the CONMESS to embark on indefinite strike from January 10th, 2011, but because of our agreement, we instructed our members not to embark on that strike. We said they should maintain peace, thinking that government would fulfill its promises. Unfortunately, what government offered was not in conformity with CONMESS. The principle of CONMESS states that any doctor in any part of the country either in the rural or urban area, Federal, local and states should receive the same amount of money in any level or step that such doctor is. Government has had this table for two years When they brought it, we found out that the table was already compressed.

Content of original CONMESS table

The original table of CONMES is like the normal civil service rule. It has the Step 1, to Step 9 but what they did was that they compressed it which is against the rule and law of the federation. Part of our resolution after we suspended the strike was that by February we are going to have a Congress in order to review our suspended strike and when we gave notice to our members that there was going to be a congress last week. It was then government realised that we were serious. The Commissioner for Health on Tuesday, called us to a meeting before the Congress. We told him about the table and the agreement and he told us that they were going to have an executive meeting on Thursday. We also made a request to have the circular by Thursday or before the congress on Friday. But he said he could not give us any specific day or time and we had already called for our Congress. There was no way we could cancel it.

Reinstatement of Dr. Olaifa

We agreed that he must be reinstated but we now realised that the letter that was given to Olaifa instructed him to withdraw his court case and also write a letter of appeal which is against what we have already agreed. How can we be on an agreement for a certain issues for six months and now coming within two weeks telling him to withdraw the court case? What we agreed was that Olaifa should be reinstated. If at all he withdraws his court case and he is not reinstated, he can’t go back to the court again. Olaifa must be reinstated. What we told the government was that there should be a tripartite meeting between government, Olaifa and his lawyer and the association and by the time they are reinstating Olaifa, he should also be writing letter of withdrawal. That was the agreement. We don’t want a situation whereby Olaifa will withdraw the court case and government will not reinstate him.

New improved salary Government is not coming out with any improved salary structure. What they did was that the junior officers who are on less than Level 6 are paid N8,000 minimum wage but Level 6 above are paid N12.000 minimum wage, government only did 25 percent increment. The jumbo pay is not true, the nurses are not happy and you can ask any of the associations. They will tell you the truth. Everybody is rejecting this table. The new table shows between 60 to 80 percent of CONMESS. The reverse is the case which is different from the natural principle of CONMESS.

The tax issue

All over the world doctors” clinical allowance and Call Duty Allowance are not taxed. In the agreement they agreed not to tax these but they are still doing it. We are not happy about this tax and we have suspend this strike twice before. This time around we want everybody to beg government to do what they ought to do in order not to cause more loss of lives.

Who is to be held responsible?

We vote the government in to take care of our health, education, shelter and other things. But they have not done all these things. Not because they employ us, we are part of the people. Government should take responsibility for the lives that have been lost. During the last strike, people died including those related to me and I am not happy about that. There is no percentage in CONMESS. The NMA says it should be implemented in all the states. It is not a Federal government issue but an NMA issue and the principle behind CONMESS is that we want to stop brain drain.From state to state, they want people to be working in the rural areas, if those working in the rural areas are well paid, I will love to join them there.

Hippocratic Oath

Oath does not say you should not take care of your family. Are yousaying I should not take care of my family, educate my children, and not pay my house rent? I can tell you that my children are telling me that they don’t want to become doctors because they feel doctors don’t have money. The oath says doctors should be medically sound in order to provide better services.

The way out

My appealis to Lagosians, well-meaning Nigerians, traditional ruler, and spiritual leaders to talk to the government to implement this agreement and we will be back at work. We are begging the government not to allow the people to die. It is very unfortunate anybody can die, but the most important thing is that they should look at the impact on the poor people. Doctors are also poor, if I am sick now I can’t go to the private hospital because I don’t have the money.