Lagos vows to sanction lazy health workers

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Lagos State Government has vowed to sanction lazy health workers with poor attitude to work.

The government also decried the rate of complaints by patients in government’s hospitals, saying that it was no longer going to be business as usual.

Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, who spoke at the launch of Service Charter in the three facilities in the state on Tuesday in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria urged health workers to make efforts to sustain and improve the level of service charter compliance.

According to Idris, quality health delivery must be at the forefront of all processes, services and even infrastructure adopted and implemented in facilities, saying that becoming chartered was a huge responsibility that could not be taken lightly.

“The Charters say loudly to the public that we are ready, able and willing to serve them and that we can be held accountable for any lack of service. Great effort must be made to sustain and even improve your level of service charter compliance. Customer service delivery must be at the forefront of all processes, services and even infrastructure adopted and implemented in your facilities,” he said.

He also appealed to other Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs awaiting formalization of their Charters to derive inspiration and motivation from their chartered counterparts, as the the process could only lead to the betterment of their facility and ultimately greater satisfaction of their customers.

The commissioner stressed that Service Charter implementation was a collective effort with no one person having the perfect answer to solving existing challenges and limitations, but that as a body “we can forge ahead learning from each other’s mistakes and sharing.”

“Undoubtedly, implementation of Service Charter in the Ministry proper has totally altered customer service and service delivery. It is no longer “business as usual”. Not only has the entire Ministry been given a face-lift and become customer sensitive and friendly but in deed now in our 5th year of implementation, progress has been made in establishing necessary structures and incorporating key elements of service charter into our daily working ethics.

“As a testimony to our efforts and progress, the Ministry of Health has since 2014 continued to receive annual commendations and awards for their creativity and innovation with respect to implementation of service charter as well as high performance and compliance to the reform initiative’s guidelines, norms and practices.

“The Cascade Initiative of Service Charter within the Health Sector commenced in 2013 with the first phase involving the Secondary Health Facilities and MDAs. Following sensitization, parallel Service Charter Units were established to facilitate the implementation of Service Charter on site/from within.

“In 2015, the first set of 14 Health MDAs were selected based on consistency in implementation and performance, to be chartered. Today, three years later, we are set to increase the number of chartered Health MDAs to 17. It has been an expedition full of discovery, sacrifice and achievement for the chartered and unchartered alike with some of those already chartered in danger of being ‘dechartered” for consistently poor performance,” he said.

According to Idris, “You know who you are and I will use this medium/occasion to admonish you to pull yourself out of mediocrity and shine.”