Daily Independent (Lagos)
Yinka Shokunbi and Funmi Falob
7 January 2009
Adebanjo Olasupo, a traditional ruler from Epe on admission at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja, is one of those hardest hit by the doctors' strike which entered its second day on Tuesday, despite pleas by Governor Babatunde Fashola.
The doctors say they are not impressed by Fashola's platitudes, demanding instead that he takes action to improve medicare, and upgrade their service conditions in Lagos, the richest state in Nigeria, whose N405 billion budget for 2009 dwarfs those of many African countries.
Well, when two elephants fight, the grass suffers; as illustrated by the cases of Olasupo and other patients in public hospitals.
Olasupo picks up the story in his own words: "I have been here since Saturday for a toe amputation but have only been attended to by a female doctor who prescribed some medications. No one else has come to my aid.
"My relations and subjects are considering a referral to the National Orthopedic Hospital Igbobi, Lagos if the strike lingers beyond today (Tuesday)."
Critically ill patients placed on intravenous infusions, such as blood, groaned in pain as there were no doctors to replace the drugs set into the veins.
Medical students and senior consultants were the ones at most clinics attending to patients on new appointments.
The doctors insist on their demand for better welfare before calling off the strike, even as Fashola said the government knows their plight.
He appealed for a truce, with a promise to attend to all the points the doctors raised.
He was at the LASUTH to commission the BT Pediatric Complex and BT Health and Diagnostic Centre, where he assured Lagosians of the commitment to healthcare delivery.
Fashola said the government's 10-point agenda has been carefully thought out, arranged, and planned, and "it would be a great danger to alter it.
"That agenda does not seek to paper cracks; it does not seek to paint over problems, but seeks to unravel the problems and to solve them in a methodical and progressive manner.
"That agenda requires us as a people and as a government to make choices between very competing interests. Everybody is important, but we must start from somewhere, and move progressively to other spots."
Fashola reiterated the government's health goals as the welfare of all stakeholders, including medical workers and patients.
"We bear a common duty as public servants to place the interests of those we serve above our interests. You probably do not know it but nobody is more concerned about your welfare than I am."
He said he is aware of the need for a total welfare package that should factor in housing, office accommodation as well as decent salary.
"Even though I am not a doctor, I know the best place and most sensible place to start is the infrastructure."
He appealed to the doctors to call off the strike because "we can pay back money, we can pay back arrears, but we will never be able to give back lives. This is a fundamental of the Hippocratic Oath."
Fashola said the executive council has been briefed about the problems in the health sector and that the development of infrastructure is the best place to start the solutions.
"We are mindful of the problems in the health sector and the pressure of overwork. I appeal to you to put behind us the strike because the cost would be irredeemable if a patient dies.
"I will not be able to live with a good conscience if one patient should die as a result of the strike. We will not be able to give back life."
He pledged that his administration will stop the practice of ferrying Nigerians to India for kidney and heart surgery, and will transform Lagos into the centre of excellence in health care in Africa.
According to him, the BT would solve children and women related problems and reduce mortality rate in this category.
"Our goal is the welfare of the people of Lagos. The complex represents one of the facilities whose work is in progress in the state.
"The state is currently building six special hospitals dedicated to the problems of women and children in various areas in the state. When they are completed they would reduce the rate of infant and maternal mortality in the state."
Health Commissioner, Jide Idris, described facilities in the complex as "very modern" and at par with what is on offer anywhere in the world.
"This one-of-its-kind diagnostic centre is set to offer the residents of Lagos State qualitative, comprehensive and up-to-date investigative services which surely will go a long way in the government's quest for a healthy people", he enthused.
Idris said the government is resolving the issues raised by the doctors, stressing that only a few of them are on strike.
He commended those who did not join the action, and urged them to "go about their normal duties of attending to patients whose interests they are out to serve."
But the doctors met after Fashola's address and decided to stick to their guns.
"Congress has resolved that unless the government puts its commitment on paper and meets with at least 80 per cent of (our) demand, the strike continues," said Doctors Guild Chairman, Ibrahim Olaifa.
A meeting held later between the doctors and government officials, led by Fashola's Health Adviser, Toyin Hamzat, ended in a deadlock.
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