Hospitals Run Skeletal Services

Doctors and nurses at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, on Monday attended to patients, including emergency cases brought to the hospital on Sunday and early on Monday, in spite of the ongoing nationwide strike .

Organised labour had called an indefinite strike on Monday to protest the removal of petrol subsidy by the Federal Government on January 1.

A staff of the hospital, who did not want to be named, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the emergency cases were accident victims and not casualties from the strike.

“The medical staff on night duty are still around to attend to the patients because, as essential service institution, we cannot go on strike. We are also lucky to have resident staff who are either on call duty or at work,” he said.

A woman, who simply identified herself as Madam Ibironke, said her mother was being attended to, in spite of the strike.

“We brought her to the hospital three days ago and she is receiving prompt medical attention,” she told NAN.

The situation was, however, different at Randle General Hospital, Surulere, where the gate of the hospital was shut, thereby preventing movement in and out of the facility.

The security man at the gate told NAN: “We are not working; doctors, nurses and other staff are not on duty. We are not receiving patients because of the strike.”

Generally, the strike was peaceful as some youths who massed in front of the National Stadium, Surulere, the ever-busy Ojuelegba and Maryland, were only discussing the fuel subsidy removal.

Scores of people who went out in the early hours of the day, were forced to trek long distances to get to their destinations.