By Sola Ogundipe, Chioma Obinna & Tony Edike
LAGOS — Eight days into the strike called by doctors under the aegis of the Medical Guild, no end appears to be in sight to the dispute between the doctors and the Lagos State governments as the disputing parties remain averse towards shifting ground on negotiations.

In view of this development, expectations by patients of a quick resolution to the face-off were dashed, yesterday, as the striking doctors vowed not to shift ground except their demands are fully met. In the same vein, the state government has indicated its unrelenting resolve to employ new doctors to replace those on strike.

The doctors are pressing for the implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS, and downward review of tax, among other issues.

Meanwhile, medical services at the National Orthopeadic Hospital, Enugu, have been paralysed following an indefinite strike by resident doctors in the hospital over the last two weeks.

The Enugu strike is to protest alleged irregularities in the upgrading and promotion of resident doctors by management of the hospital after the dialogue between the Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, and the management on the issue was stalemated.

Patients groan

In Lagos, the death toll occasioned by the indefinite strike has continued to increase across all the state-owned hospitals while booked patients for various surgical procedures wait endlessly for services that are not available.

Findings by Vanguard showed that the pressure from spill-over of patients is tasking services at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, the Federal Medical Center, Ebute Metta and the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Lagos, Igbobi, among others to breaking point. The fate of several other patients referred from the state-owned hospitals still hangs in the balance.

Some of these patients, who spoke to Vanguard,  lamented their woes as they groan under the effects of the strike even as the stalemate persists.

A patient, Tolu Adeleke, was booked for surgery at General Hospital, Lagos for appendisectomy. A quick look at her would tell anyone that is seeing him for the first time, the extent of pains she was feeling at that moment. When our reporter sighted her, she could neither sit or stand well.

“I was scheduled for operation on April 16 but till now nothing yet as there has been no doctor to attend to me,” she said.

At Gbagada General Hospital, a woman who prefers anonymity, said she had a case of  complicated haemorrhoid, commonly known as pile and that despite the  pains, she was still asked to go back home as there was no doctor to attend to her.

Further investigation at the same hospital revealed that, to prevent maternal deaths, pregnant women with complicated cases who require Caesarian Section, CS, have been asked to go to private hospitals while those with stable conditions are only given routine checks.

Unfortunately, many of these pregnant women who require CS may lose their lives for inability to afford the cost of the surgery.  In most private hospitals, CS costs at least N150,000. How many of these patients can afford this,” queried, Mrs. Zainab Ayuba, one of the pregnant women.

Blame govt for deaths —Medical Guild

Meanwhile, despite the woes of patients and the threats by their employer to sack and recruit new doctors to take over their job, the striking doctors were not moved.

They said: “As the state government’s position has not changed, the Medical Guild which is an umbrella body of doctors under the employment of Lagos State Government, is also not willing to go back to work until demands are met.”

Speaking to journalists after its congress, yesterday, the striking Lagos doctors asked the public to hold the state government responsible for casualties suffered during the ongoing strike.

Chairman of the Medical Guild, Dr. Olumuyiwa Odusote, asked the public to prevail on the state government to resolve the crisis rocking the health sector.

His words: “I groan within me to see Lagosians suffer. So, ask the government about the casualties and the lives that have been lost. There is a general belief that those in authority do not use the facilities in public hospitals. So those who use the facilities are the masses and they are the ones who are going to suffer. It’s a struggle that everybody must partake in.”

On plan to engage Youth Corps  members

Reacting to alleged plans of the government to engage Youth Corps members in managing emergency cases at the hospitals, Odusote said: “There is a limit to what they can do. When they get to their limit, what happens next?

“It’s impossible to replace doctors with about 25 years of experience with doctors with just two years of experience.”

He further described plans by the state government to recruit new staff to replace the striking doctors as unrealistic. He said the government and workers should be partners rather than enemies to move the business forward and employers should also respect their employees and vice versa to ensure productivity.

Presenting a 24-paragraph of what he tagged; “COMESS Struggle Timelines,” Odusote said: “We are the ones who have been calling for negotiations with the government and not the other way round.  If the government is really concerned about the masses, then it should ensure that the matter is resolved and normalcy is returned to our hospitals.

”Of course, as health care providers we cannot be happy that patients are dying but we have resolved to hold out till the end. If the government wants to do something about the loss of innocent lives, then they should embrace dialogue with us and ensure that this matter is resolved to forestall further loss of lives.”

Enugu resident doctors strike  paralyses services

The Enugu strike notice issued to the management and signed by Dr. Damian Ogbu and Dr Chinedu Ilokanuno, President and Secretary of the ARD in the hospital respectively, the aggrieved medical doctors said several meetings had been held between the association and management to seek ways of resolving the lingering labour dispute but lamented that no solution had been found.

All 52 resident doctors in the hospital had abandoned their duty posts since the strike began, leaving behind only the consultants and nurses who now render skeletal services to patients on admission but activities at the accident and emergency department had been suspended.

They maintained that following pressures mounted by the doctors over the issue, the management had set up a committee with a mandate to, among other things, unearth several inadequacies and uncoordinated upgrading and promotion of resident doctors and make recommendations.

ARD said: “It is, however, curious that for over one year the management chose at this point in time to drag some consultants into an issue it created and perpetuated by routing through the personal mails of some doctors, requesting the doctors to report if their promotions were irregular.

“This, therefore, negates the original intention to resolve this lingering issue. These letters are diversionary and are deliberate attempt to conceal the ineptitude of the personnel department. The letter will at best encourage individual lobbying which the management should not pursue,” the ARD said.

After reviewing the development, the doctors resolved at its congress held on March 21, 2012 that since the management had no guideline for promotion/upgrading of doctors of all cadres over the past two years, “it should as a matter urgency fashion a clear promotion pattern by taking a cue from other sister health institutions.”

They, therefore, demanded that the management should as a matter of urgency adopt a holistic approach to solving the lingering institutional problem by ensuring that it produced written objective promotion and placement chart for all doctors in the hospital adding that no promotion or upgrade should result to any kobo-drop in call duty which is money paid for work done.