Striking Doctors Resume Work

WORK has resumed in tertiary hospitals as doctors nationwide called off strike action on Thursday.

A visit to hospitals in Lagos  on Friday confirmed that indeed, doctors have resumed their duty post.

At the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, doctors, including the President of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), LUTH chapter, Dr Emeka Ugwu, were attending to patients.

Dr Ugwu, while confirming the  resumption from the three weeks strike action, explained that doctors in LUTH started work on Friday morning.

According to Dr Ugwu, the executives of the LUTH ARD held a meeting on Thursday night, where it was decided that LUTH chapter would comply with the directives from the National Executive Council (NEC) to suspend the strike.

He added that the suspension was to give the Federal Government the opportunity to redeem its pledge, noting that some of the issues  would take some time to be achieved.

He explained that there would be another meeting in January to review the implementation of the agreement reached between NEC and the Federal Government. 

Also, the ARD President, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) chapter, Dr Jimi Sodipe, confirmed that after a brief meeting with the chapter’s resident doctors,  have commenced work.

“By virtue of this congress we have done, services by resident doctors have commenced as of now. We are trying to move on and hope that government will respect agreements that are entered into freely.

“Nobody is asking for anything special. What people are asking for is for the doctors to be trained as specialists. We are saying that there should be a framework of procedures that resident doctors will be trained to be specialists.”

Dr Sodipe, however, appealed to the government to pay doctors yet to be paid their salaries. “People that have been owed salaries of five months have to be paid, though the government has set up a panel and we hope that they do their work.”