Though, patients were the ones who felt the brunt of the recent nationwide strike, embarked by the National Association of Resident Doctors, (NARD) in Nigeria, the Association told me that the strikes were embarked upon, to improve the health status of Nigerians. NARD declared a five-day warning strike from 8am on Wednesday, May 17 to 8am Monday, May 22, 2023.
While visiting some wards like the medical emergency unit, surgical emergency unit and outpatient department, at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), (at 9:00am on the 18th of May, 2023), there were few patients at those units, hoping to be attended to.
“My daughter has been sick, since last week. I have given her medication, but all to no avail, hence the reason why I brought her to LASUTH. I have been here since 9:00am, hoping to see a doctor. A nurse had told me earlier, to either take my child to private clinic, if I have money, as there are no doctors on ground to attend to my daughter this morning or wait for consultants, who may come later,” Mrs Adaku Uche, narrated her ordeal to me.
As for Miss Helen (surname withheld) who rushed her mother with a broken knee to the surgical emergency unit, she said, “The nurses at the emergency unit referred us to Gbagada General Hospital. They told us that we should not waste time as no doctors on ground to attend to us,” Helen lamented.
One of the nurses at the medical emergency unit at LASUTH, who spoke with me anonymously, said “Emergency cases were given first aid treatment to stabilise them, and thereafter, we referred them to other hospitals. The reason we are doing that is because, there are no doctors on ground to attend to them.”
Meanwhile, NARD president, Innocent Orji, in a chat told me the strike, which started on the 17th of May, 2023, is a five-day warning strike, adding, “We are hoping government will attend to our demands so we can call off the strike. However, if the government is still adamant, we plan to reconvene and take a decision on what to do next.”
“We are calling on government to immediately embark on massive recruitment of clinical personnel in hospitals. We are also pleading with government to remove the bureaucratic constraints on the immediate replacement of doctors and nurses who leave the system.
“We demand for immediate infrastructure development in the hospitals, followed by a subsequent allocation of at least 15 per cent of budgetary provisions to health in accordance with the Abuja Declaration of 2001. We are demanding for the immediate increase in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure to the tune of 200 per cent of Doctors’ gross salary, among other things.”
He however appealed to Nigerians who are mostly affected, adding that most of their demands was to improve health status of Nigerians.
“I am appealing to Nigerians to bear with doctors, as the strike is not meant to punish them, rather, it is meant to improve the health sector.”
