Lagos officials meet as patients wait for new doctors

Judge’s absence stalls sacked workers’ suit

NEW medical doctors recruited by the Lagos State government to replace the striking health personnel are yet to report for work the second-day running.

In all the hospitals owned by the state, none of the doctors was seen on duty, leaving patients, who had thronged the centres stranded.

Their hopes were raised on Monday when the state government employed 373 new doctors and sacked the striking 788 doctors.

But yesterday, the patients waited in vain as no doctor came to attend to them.

Also yesterday, hearing on the suit filed by the striking medical doctors against the Lagos State government could not hold due to the absence of Justice Benedict Kanyip of the National Industrial Court (NIC).

The doctors had on April 24, 2012, filed a suit where they urged the court to restrain the government from dismissing them from service.

They also sought a declaration that the refusal of the defendant to completely implement the Consolidated Medical Salary (CONMESS) was a breach of the agreement the government reached with them. It was learnt that the new doctors were treading the path of caution because of the threat by the Lagos chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to de-list any of its members, who takes side with the government to replace their sacked colleagues.

Sources claimed that key officers of the Ministry of Health yesterday had a meeting for several hours over matters not unconnected with the new doctors. The meeting will continue today.

From the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to Marina General Hospital and Gbagada General Hospital, among others, the situation was not different.

Waiting patients and nursing personnel at LASUTH confirmed that none of the new doctors had reported for work when The Guardian visited the facility yesterday afternoon.

One of the patients in the abandoned Medical Emergency Ward said the initial hope that they earlier nursed on Monday had been dashed.

He said: “Someone only need to be in similar condition to know what it means to wait indefinitely for medical attention by doctors. I don’t have money, otherwise, I would have gone elsewhere”, he said.

The patient in his mid-40s, had an accident, which left him with severe leg injury and had not been seen by doctors in the past two weeks. He prayed for God’s intervention in the Lagos public healthcare, as he spoke over a passage of the New Testament Bible, which he has been reading to fill the idle moment.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said new doctors had been screened and recruited to increase the workforce to 1,059, following the sack of the 788 doctors under the aegis of the Medical Guild.

The sack option, according to him, was embraced to restore services, especially emergency services to prevent the incidences of avoidable deaths.

The claimants further asked the court to declare that the refusal of the government to fully implement CONMESS was “unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void and constitutes unfair labour practice”.

The state government had on Monday sacked the doctors and recruited fresh ones to replace them.

But at the resumed hearing on the suit yesterday, the court Registrar informed counsel to the doctors, Mr. Bamidele Aturu and the defendant’s, Mr. Ade Ipaye (SAN), that the court would not sit.

She said the judge had travelled to Abuja for an official duty and gave them May 16, 2012, as the new date for the hearing on the case.