Lagos State Doctors Raise Alarm Of Another Looming Strike In The State

                                       

The crisis in the Lagos state health sector may not have been resolved as doctors have raised alarm that the state government is fraustrating the efforts towards ensuring quality health service delivery in the state by not wanting to resolve the issues that gave birth to the last industrial strike by the doctors of the state. According to a statement signed by Dr. Olumuyiwa Odusote, Chairman Medical Guild in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria “following the withdrawal of the illegal mass sack of 788 doctors by the Lagos State Government, and on receipt of recall letters by all the doctors, work resumed in earnest in all 27 public hospitals in Lagos State on 7  June, 2012.

“Since resumption of medical services in the hospitals, the Lagos State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association and the Medical Guild have written series of letters to the Lagos State Government requesting for meetings and mechanisms to be put in place to resolve all the outstanding issues that led to and emanated from the recent health sector crisis, including CONMESS.
“However till date, the government is yet to invite the NMA or the Medical Guild to any meeting to look into these issues. The only correspondence from government was to inform us about a committee it set up to review wage matters of health workers,”
“we however do not know the composition of this committee, neither have we received any correspondence from the committee.
“Rather than engender industrial harmony, the government has adopted measures to stifle our members by arbitrary deductions in April salary, withholding May salary, forcing only doctors to fill daily activity reports and victimisation of a Principal Medical Officer who had a verbal altercation with a locum doctor.
“We wish to call on all well meaning Lagosians and stakeholders who intervened to resolve the last crisis to prevail on the Lagos State Government to do the needful by initiating a process of resolving all the outstanding issues once and for all, while we on our part will do all that is necessary to preserve industrial peace in the health sector.”