25th September, 2018
Normalcy has returned to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), following the suspension of the 14-day strike by the Association of Resident Doctors (NARDs), the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
A NAN reporter who visited the hospital reports that doctors are attending to patients who visited.
NAN recalls that the association on Sept. 5 embarked on strike following what they described as acute shortage of resident doctors and house officers in the teaching hospital.
Dr Salami Ajibade, the association’s President, told NAN that the 55 house officers employed by the Lagos State Government would not be enough to attend to the large number of patients who patronise the hospital daily.
“We have three requests; we requested for 80 House Officers, we requested for Resident Doctors and government has only approved 55 house officers.
“They have promised that before the end of December they would add 25 more to make it 80.
“So 55 have resumed, we expect 25 more to resume before the end of December,’’ Ajibade said.
He lamented that the house officers were interns who would just work for one year, adding that at the end of their term, they will leave and another set will resume.
He said this was what the hospital had been experiencing for the past three years.
Ajibade said: “So our requests now is that as 55 have been employed now, before December, government should give us a template that will state when it will be employing the remaining 25 house officers within the year.’’
He urged patients and the general public to understand with them (doctors), saying that the strike is for and about the teeming population that came to LASUTH for treatment.