Lagos Doctors Begin Indefinite Strike

Doctors in Lagos State Public Hospitals began an indefinite strike today after the Lagos State Government sent policemen to disrupt their meeting and attempt to arrest their chairman, Dr. Akinmuyiwa Odusote.

The state government had ordered the doctors to appear before a disciplinary panel set up to try the doctors for embarking on three days warning strike and for refusing to answer the queries issued them.

At the Health Service Commission, HSC office at Lagos Hospital this morning, armed policemen were deployed at the entrance, preventing people from entering the venue of the Personnel Management Board, PMB, meeting, the disciplinary panel set up to try the doctors.

The 1,100 doctors in government’s employ shunned the disciplinary panel set up by the government to try them for embarking on the last three days warning strike.

The doctors went to the venue of the PMB sitting on Lagos Island, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria today but refused to face the panel and dared the government to do its worse.

As a result of the presence of hundreds of doctors at the venue of the PMB sitting, activities in Lagos hospitals were virtually paralysed as there were no doctors to attend to patients.

P.M.NEWS gathered that as the doctors were holding a congress meeting, the government sent policemen to disrupt their deliberation but the adamant doctors regrouped at another location for the meeting.

The police also came to disrupt the meeting and ordered the Chairman, Medical Guild, Odusote to follow them to the Lion Building Police Station, an act that angered the other doctors who regrouped at another location and declared indefinite strike.

When contacted, Odusote said the doctors had declared indefinite strike following government’s harassment, saying that the police came to arrest him and that his colleagues felt bad about government’s action and decided to down tools.

Earlier, Odusote had told P.M.NEWS that the doctors would not appear before the panel even though they would be at the venue of the panel’s sitting, saying that the government was acting undemocratically.

He said since the doctors called off the three days warning strike, the government had not deemed it fit to dialogue with them, but rather, introduced obnoxious policies to cow them into submission.

Last week, the HSC issued the 1,100 doctors who went on strike queries but they did not answer to them, while as a last resort, the government ordered them to appear before the PMB to explain why they did not answer the queries issued to them.

Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, when contacted before the doctors began the indefinite strike, said the issue of the doctors appearing before the PMB was purely administrative issues but said government would not throw out the option of dialogue in resolving the crisis on ground.

According to him, “we will dialogue with them, there must be peace. A group of people cannot decide on what to do on their own. Before they went on strike, we begged them. There are other people in the health sector who have issues that are also being addressed.

“We are addressing the doctors’ issues; why should they have to go on strike then? The issue is purely administrative. The government is fully committed to the health sector but government is constrained by resources. We will explore every avenue to resolve the issue on ground.”

The doctors had threatened to embark on an indefinite strike by the end of this month if the state government did not meet demands but were forced to begin the action today because of what they termed government harassment of doctors.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga