Resident doctors at the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, on Monday embarked on a three-day warning strike,
following the failure of the state government to recruit more house officers
and resident doctors.
The President, Association of Resident Doctors, LASUTH,
Dr Balogun Fatai told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the strike was
total, involving both emergency and clinical operations in the hospital.
He said that in spite of the agitations of the
association and its meetings with the government and management officials,
there were no signs that new resident doctors would be engaged in the hospital.
“Although, some house officers are reporting for work,
yet they are not enough to call off the strike because the resident doctors
that form the hub of the workforce of the hospital have yet to resume duty.
“We are made to know that the governor has not yet given
the approval as expected; that is what is stalling the recruitment of new
doctors in the hospital.
“That is why we are embarking on a three-day warning
strike, which is total; no member of the association will attend to patients
during the strike,’’ he said.
Balogun, however, noted that consultants were on ground
to see their patients, adding that the specialists would do their best to
deliver health care to the patients.
He, nonetheless, stressed that the consultants would
still need the services of the resident doctors because resident doctors
interacted with patients directly as the patients’ first point of call.
“If these residents are not on ground, it is obvious that
work cannot go on smoothly at the teaching hospital.
“We are expecting 172 doctors, at the minimum, to start
work; that will cushion the effect of what is going on now at the hospital.
“Essentially, the strike is to pass the message across to
the government, so that it feels our pains and gives the needed approval as
soon as possible,’’ he said.
Also speaking, the Chief Medical Director of LASUTH,
Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, told NAN that he had done everything that needed to
be done to deploy the available resident doctors.
“I am not the one in charge of employing doctors, but
have done everything I needed to do to deploy them, “ he said.
A visit to the hospital by NAN conformed that the
resident doctors were not at their duty posts to attend to patients.
Only nurses and other health professionals, including
pharmacists, laboratory scientists, as well as some house officers were seen at
their duty posts.
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