Adelanwa Bamgboye
5 January 2009
All medical practitioners under the umbrella of the Medical Guild in Lagos State have vowed to embark on an indefinite strike to-day to press home their demand for better pay.
Our correspondent learnt at the Lagos State General Hos-pital Ikeja that the state hospital management had already di-rected that an attendance regis-ter be signed today to forestall the strike, and failure on the part of any medical practitioner operating in the state govern-ment hospitals will earn an im-mediate sack.
Rising from their manage-ment meeting, it was gathered that the situation at the Ikeja General Hospital was so tense that the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Femi Olugbile, had to pass a circular warning all the parties not to talk to the press on any issue.
The Lagos Medical Guild's latest threat to embark on an indefinite strike is coming on the heels of a similar strike em-barked upon by the resident doctors in the state.
Specifically, the medical guilds are complaining over the disparity in their salaries and allowances and those of their counterpart at the federal level.
Dr. Ibrahim Olaifa, Chair-man Lagos State Medical Guild, said the decision to em-bark on the strike today stands, even though it is a painful de-cision.
According to him, the 25 state hospitals in the state are not good enough for patient management.
Apart from this, he said, for the last 16 months, the state government had been promi-sing to address the issue, but it had not been addressed. He wondered why medical doctors can not be well paid as judges in the state.
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