LAGOS – As the National Union of the Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) began an indefinite strike on Thursday, some patients in Lagos decried the incessant strikes in the nation’s health institutions.
They spoke in interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the indefinite strike embarked upon by the health workers.
NAN checks in some of the hospitals revealed that there was partial compliance with the strike directive in the hospitals visited.
Investigation revealed that core clinical services were ongoing in few of the hospitals with different cadre of health workers attending to the patients.
Some of the affected hospitals include the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Meta, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, and the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi.
Miss Yeside Idowu, an outpatient at LUTH decried incessant strikes, which she said, had frustrated efforts to get healthcare services from the public hospitals.
“They keep advising people not to patronise the traditional healers, but the traditional healers do not go on strike,” she said.
Also, Mr Ayoola Oladayo, relative of a patient at LUTH, said that if strikes continued to plague the Nigerian hospitals, people would lose faith in them.
Oladayo said that he was currently under pressure to move his brother to a private hospital.
“Incessant strikes plaguing our hospitals have erased my faith in the public health facilities, and that is why those who can afford it left the country to get treatment abroad,” he said.
Another patient, Mr Kazeem Abu, who is seeking orthopedic help at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, said that his biggest concern was the cost of seeking treatment at a private hospital.
“We are here because we need the specialised help and services of this institution.
“If they are not here, where else can we go and will we be able to afford the cost?” he asked.
When contacted, Mr Christian Chukuma, NUAHP chairman in Lagos State, said that public hospitals within the state complied with the strike directive.
“We just declared it today. Remember people had already reported for duty before the declaration was made, the effect of this strike will be more as days go by.
“This is just NUAHP, but we believe that Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) will also join and the full effect will be felt,” he said.
Chukuma said that the strike was necessary.
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“Some agreements reached with the Federal Government concerning the needs of health workers were not being met.
“Based on this, we have done a lot, including entering agreements and signing Memorandum of Understanding to no avail, and now, we feel we have no other recourse,” he said.
In his remark, Mr Goke Akinfeleye, the chairman, LUTH chapter of the association, said that they decided to render skeletal clinical services because of the priority given to the patients’ lives.
Akinfeleye said, “One principle we operate is the fact that we take our patients’ lives as priority.
“So, what we are doing here today is to ensure that they are taken care of and inform them appropriately concerning the industrial action.”
NAN reports that the strike by the workers is to express their grievances on non-commencement of the residency training programmes and non-implementation of new call duty allowance among others.
NUAHP is an umbrella body of the professional physiotherapists, medical laboratory scientists, pharmacists, occupational therapists, optometrists, dieticians, medical social workers, clinical psychologists and dental therapists.(NAN)
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