DOCTORS WAR WITH FG ON JANUARY 2......SEE WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

hehehehehe......In the short run, the government should sit down with them and address the immediate challenges. This is very important. In the long run, the government should fashion out a policy on residency training in Nigeria. I think by the time the government has a policy on residency training, most of these challenges would be solved.

But the government and the resident doctors should sit down to discuss a way out of the impending strike. The payment of salaries is one of the immediate challenges I am talking about and government should resolve it.

If they (resident doctors) are asking for what is legitimately theirs, there should not be a problem with that and they cannot be said to be asking for too much. But if they are asking for what is not legitimately theirs, government should tell them so.

There are regulations concerning when resident doctors must be at work. Resident doctors are not permitted to engage in private practice. This is why it (medical profession) is regulated and that is why government must always attend to their needs. •Prof. Aaron Ojule (Chief Medical Director, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital)

The government is already doing a lot to address the issues. First, there is a committee set up to look into the restructuring of the programme and the committee has submitted its report to the government. So, we are waiting for a White Paper on the way forward. This, I believe, will go a long way in providing the necessary funds for the programme because ab initio, there were no budgetary funds for the training of doctors in the country. It is from the Internally Generated Revenue of each institution that the bills are covered. The report of the committee will go a long way in changing everything in residency programme. I am aware there is communication between NARD and the government and the Nigerian Medical Association, being the umbrella body, is overseeing the development. • Prof. Mike Ogirima (President, Nigerian Medical Association)

I think the Federal Government should call them to a negotiating table. They should not ignore them because that will worsen the situation. At the negotiating table, the Ministry of Health and all the major stakeholders should be there.

They had an agreement brokered by the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara. If not because of the agreement brokered by the Speaker, the resident doctors would have gone on a strike about three months ago. So, the Federal Government should negotiate with them in order to avert the planned strike.

If they can go back to the negotiating table, I believe there will be a way out of the crisis.

The first step is to negotiate with them and attend to their demands, but if that is not done, the resident doctors will embark on their planned strike. I don’t think that is the best way to start the New Year. We should learn to be proactive and not begin to issue threats after they might have commenced the strike.

Strike is not a good way to start 2017. If they embark on the strike, the masses will be at the receiving end and even anybody could be a victim of it. But preventing such a strike from happening will be a wise thing to do for the government. •Suraj Ogunyemi (Immediate past Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association, Osun State chapter)

The issue has been on the ground for some time. The World Health Organisation recommended that at least 15 per cent of the budget should go to the health sector. Unfortunately, it is not so in this country. A trainee needs a lot of standard equipment to become a complete doctor, but when you go to these teaching hospitals and medical centres, they are not there. When equipment are not on the ground it is as good as if the doctor is not existing. The remuneration is poor and that is why people are moving out of the country. There should be a lot of training and retraining and government should honour the agreement reached in the past. There should be improved remuneration.

Recently, we had the 25th reunion anniversary of my set, while those from Canada, America and even South Africa donated $10,000, those of us, from Nigeria could not donate up to N100,000. It is not that they are working more than us, but doctors are not well paid here. Because equipment are not evenly available that is why hospitals refer patients.

Let the government allocate more money and ensure it is well utilised; it should not end in the pockets of politicians. •Williams Afolabi (A medical practitioner in Ekiti State)

The government is not supposed to be taking the health sector for granted because the doctors are rendering essential services. The government is not doing well in the health sector, if not doctors would not be thinking of going on strike. The best thing is for the government to respond to the demands of the doctors. These are the people that deal with human lives and we know how precious life is. It is not proper to be joking with human lives; although human life is cheap in this country. The doctors should not be allowed to go on strike.

I don’t understand why some things happen in this country; the government should understand that if doctors at government hospitals should go on strike, many people would suffer, especially the underprivileged who cannot afford the exorbitant medical bills of private hospitals. I think for that reason, government should try as much as possible to prevent the strike. The government should find a way of meeting the demands of the doctors. •Pa Seginde Arogbofa (An elder statesman and Secretary General of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere)

The resident doctors are not asking for anything outside their dues; it is not fair not to attend to their demands. Even if the Federal Government cannot pay them,  it can negotiate with them. The government may not be able to meet all the demands, it should show some sympathy.

There is no place in the world where people don’t get paid for their services.  I know what it is when you work and you don’t get paid. I think the Minister of Labour and Productivity, the Minister of Health and those charged with the responsibility should seek ways of negotiating with the resident doctors to ameliorate their financial challenges.

However, the doctors must be seen to be rational. The realities of the times do not allow government to do some things which they ought to do. The law does not allow anybody, including the government, to do that which is impossible. If the government agrees to negotiate with them, they should show some level of understanding.

When this government came into power, they knew that the economy was in a shambles, but that did not stop our lawmakers from demanding the purchase of exotic cars even though we know that most of them had luxury cars. But they refused to make any sacrifice for the country, so why do you think the doctors will make sacrifice? This is the bone of contention. If our lawmakers who are receiving so much money refuse to show sacrifice, why do you think the doctors will let go what government is owing them? So, the government should look for a way of coming to terms with the doctors so that they can get some job satisfaction. • Oviemo Ovadje (A retired Army General and Chief Consultant Anaesthesiologist)

The strike is uncalled for. There is still the need for a better understanding, patience and dialogue. I do not think the solution is for anybody to talk about a strike now when we know that the government is trying to construct the right platform for everybody to do their job. So, I believe a strike is premature now. Strikes, no doubt, have caused a lot of damage in the medical system.

In fact, they have even caused more damage than what the resident doctors are trying to fight for. Nigerians are the ones suffering, especially the underprivileged who cannot afford alternatives by going to private hospitals. I advise the resident doctors to be patient and let all their claims or requests follow the normal process. They cannot have it better than now that the minister is a doctor.  So, we need to be patient and allow the normal process to take place. What they are fighting for is being worked out. It is patience that we need basically. I am aware that there are some committees that have met on some of the demands of the resident doctors. The report we saw, within the next few weeks, will be released. So, why can’t they be patient? The solution to getting things done is not by embarking on a strike; it is by talking. There is no limit to patience. I even believe that some of the demands are things that had already been programmed to be done in 2017. I am equally aware that the National Assembly is looking at how to modify or amend the TETFUND Act so that teaching hospitals can be included as beneficiaries. By the time that is done, there will be more funding to the health sector and that will invariable increase quality care which is one of the things they are fighting for.

So, what we need is patience, advocacy and dialogue, not strike.

The government is even doing that. It is the doctors that need to show more trust. The employees must trust the employer. We must know that we are all working for the betterment of Nigerians. Everything is reciprocal. While the government is playing their own part, the employees also have a role to play in some of the challenges. But most importantly, everybody should be patient and do more of advocacy and dialogue. •Prof. Abdulwaheed Olatinwo (Chief Medical Director, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital)

The Federal Government should do everything within its powers to ensure that there is no strike in the New Year because we have had too many disruptions in the system. The basic things that the resident doctors are asking for are germane. Most of the arguments border on agreements that have already been reached. One of them is the issue of salary. Some hospitals have not been paid for an upward of three months and you can imagine people celebrating with hunger – that in itself is unfair. Whatever bureaucratic bottlenecks there are, I expected that the government would have cleared them up as a starting point. Another important thing is that government should release the incentives on residency training. There is a uniform template for residency training programme, in particular, the aspect of funding. We cannot continue to pretend that we do not need specialised manpower when in the actual sense this is the workforce that drives the tertiary health system. No country can make meaningful progress without investing heavily in the education of its citizens and the training of doctors is one of that. There is also the issue of the National Health Act that has been signed into law; it should also be implemented. •Ofem Enang (Consultant Endocrinologist, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital)

 

Despite being on strike for 107 days this year, doctors, nurses and other health personnel at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital still collected their salaries. Ravaged by strike, the relevance of tertiary hospitals across the country is increasingly being questioned by the public.

 

This was what the Chief Medical Director of UITH, Abdulwaheed Olatinwo, realised recently and became apologetic. He felt that public trust had taken flight and promised to ensure that services were not disrupted in future. If Olatinwo has a vaccine against the strike epidemic at UITH, there is no gainsaying the fact that it will remain an armour against the non-implementation of a raft of demands that include improved wages and provision of facilities for a better service-delivery. The Association of Resident Doctors proved just that on December 19. In a communiqué issued at the end of its meeting, it gave the Federal Government 21-day ultimatum to address its grievances or face “a total indefinite withdrawal of service.”

 

But it is worrisome that labour unrest has become perennial at our referral centres. The great costs to patients and the country are irredeemable. While the personnel at UITH might have sheathed their sword, this spirit of renewal or rededication to duty is not widespread.

 

At the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, where medical personnel began their strike on September 28, 2015, the atmosphere remains eerie. In spite of the fact that the strike was called off in June, January salary was reportedly paid in August. The N198 million monthly subvention it used to receive has been reduced by the government to N94 million, with an instruction to the hospital management to be creative for self-sustenance.

 

It took the intervention of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, for the ARD to suspend its nationwide strike on June 24, which its President, Muhammadu Askira, said was to give room for further negotiations. He lamented that 25 out of 54 branches of the union were suffering from government’s breach of an agreement on paying arrears of remunerations due to its members as of August.

 

While federal and state governments have been irresponsible by failing to discharge their obligations of adequately funding their hospitals and signing agreements with heavy financial implications with unions, which they are not prepared to honour, the doctors too have not been blameless. The strikes have become too frequent for comfort.

 

The usual victims are patients, many of whom die in the process. It was a cruel fate that befell one Margaret Edobor, who was admitted to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital over injuries she sustained from a fire accident. She had been on a hospital bed for one month before a strike embarked upon by the ARD at the hospital on August 5 resulted in her untimely death. According to the brother, she “was getting better until the doctors’ strike started. Because they left her unattended to, she contracted an infection, which led to her death.”

 

This is painful. Thousands of lives may have been lost under similar circumstances. Such unconscionable display raises some ethical questions that are clearly in breach of the Hippocratic oath that doctors swear to uphold when they are officially enrolled in the profession. A change of heart is badly needed. A doctor’s primary responsibility is to save lives. This should be sacrosanct as a life lost is gone for ever.

 

Imagine what would have been the fate of Nigeria if the military and police – essential service workers too – were to embark on strike, or do so as often and as prolonged as the doctors do. They are equally victims of the same irresponsibility in governance. Many of the soldiers fighting Boko Haram in the North-East were once deployed in battle fronts with rationed bullets under the last administration. Many of them have been killed as a result; and those that questioned the authorities, court-marshalled.

 

In civilised parts of the world, workers on essential services such as doctors exhibit restraint. They hardly go on strike and if compelled to do so, only on a limited number of days, just to make a point.  In some instances, unions or civil society symbolically do it for them. This is done because of the critical nature of their job. It is a practice our doctors should emulate to stop avoidable deaths in tertiary hospitals that are triggered by labour disputes.

 

Nevertheless, it is shameful that our teaching hospitals, especially those at Ibadan, Enugu, Zaria, Lagos and Maiduguri, which the Federal Government had graded as “centres of excellence” a few years ago, do not, by any stretch of imagination, epitomise such distinction. They are grossly underfunded and ill-equipped. This is the reality at the University College Hospital, Ibadan; University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu; and Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Zaria, designated as specialist centres for neuroscience, cardiothoracic disorders and oncology and radiotherapy respectively.

 

If these tertiary medical centres had served the purposes they were meant to serve, Nigeria could have reversed its ugly medical tourism profile, which shows that 5,000 Nigerians travel abroad monthly for treatment, as the Nigerian Medical Association once revealed.  It is a fact the then Nigerian High Commissioner to India, Oyebola Kuku, corroborated with a revelation that out of 25,000 Nigerians given visas in 2011, about 20,000 of them went for medical treatment.

 

That our tertiary health institutions and others remain “mere consulting clinics,” 33 years after they were so designated by the military when it toppled President Shehu Shagari’s government is a sad commentary. The country should do better in the 21st century, conscious of the fact that a healthy populace bodes well for productivity and wealth creation