Leadership (Abuja)
4 January 2009
As a faction of the Medical Guild begins their strike action, the Lagos State government has assured the people that all health services being provided in her hospitals would not be disrupted as medical directors have been charged to ensure uninterrupted health services.
The state commissioner for health, Dr Jide Idris, who gave the assurance yesterday in Lagos, explained the strike action being called by a faction of the Medical Guild was illegal and unacceptable to government particularly, since all the issues being raised by the guild were not only being currently addressed by the state government, but were also issues that cannot be addressed over night.
"Let me assure the good people of Lagos State that all arrangements have been made by the state government to ensure that all health services provided in the state hospitals will not be disrupted. Let me state that the faction of the Medical Guild that is embarking on the strike action will be doing so at their peril as government will ensure that legally administrative procedures will be taken to address the issue of those who decided to embark on any strike."
Idris said even though the state government had been responsive and open to dialogue, it would not succumb to blackmail which the strike action call represents. He added that government was already engaging them in constructive dialogue to address their grievances.
The commissioner recalled the process leading to the issuance of a 21-day ultimatum given by a faction of Lagos State Medical Guild on the need for the state government to address the issue of the payment of the Consolidated Tertiary Institution Salary Scale Structure; welfare of doctors, and the state of the hospitals, adding that just as government was about to act on the issue, another faction of the guild wrote government dissociating themselves from the actions of their colleagues whom they alleged did not follow normal procedures enshrined in the constitutions of the guild on the procedures of declaring an ultimatum and calling a strike action.
Idris expressed surprise at the call for the strike action by the factionalised guild, particularly when the guild has always been briefed on the actions and policy directions of the state government in the health sector on how their grievances are being addressed.
He noted that as outlined in the ten-point agenda of the state government, the need to increase access of the populace to quality, efficient and adequate basic social services and infrastructure remains a focus of the administration, hence the great revolution in various aspects of the health sector taking place with the massive developmental programmes at LASUTH to improve the overall provision of healthcare to a level commensurate with the status of a tertiary health institution of international repute on one hand and to ensure that LASUTH meets the accreditation requirement of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
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