By Dan Amor
Fillers emanating from the health sector point to the fact that the
sector which manages the lives of the downtrodden and sick Nigerians may soon
witness another major industrial action. The National Association of Resident
Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) had on Monday given government a 21 day ultimatum
to address their nagging demands “failure which industrial harmony in our
hospitals may not be guaranteed”. Unfortunately, anticipating the outcome of
its lethargic disposition towards the urgent needs of the sector, the Federal
Government had last week directed the immediate implementation of the no-work,
no-pay policy, just to intimidate the doctors into submission.
It is benumbing that health personnel entrusted with the lives of
Nigerians are owed salaries ranging from three to eight months by the current
administration in several states of the federation. This has resulted in the
collapse of the healthcare delivery system and loss of lives in the affected
states. The doctors are also peeved by the undue sack of their members from
some training institutions, none funding of residency training and delay in
effecting pension deductions of members. According to them, hospitals at all
levels are not adequately funded and existing facilities are not upgraded in
line with international best practices. In fact, our healthcare system is,
lamentably, a sorry spectacle of the untold blight and decadence that have
overtaken the Nigerian landscape. But another strike by doctors would spell
doom for the ailing economy and its attendant hardship would be disastrous. A
brief analysis of what patients suffered as a result of strikes in the recent
past would here suffice.
Sometime in 2002, Mrs. Dorathy Williams (not her real name), a
pregnant teacher in Egbeda area of Lagos,
fell into labour. Promptly, she gathered her ante-natal materials and headed
for Ayinke House, the ante-natal ward of the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital built and donated by the late philanthropist, Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony,
where she had registered for the ante-natal care. But she was greeted by a rude
shock: the doors were slammed on her face, as doctors and nurses had embarked
on one of their countless strikes. The woman was quickly rushed to a nearby private
hospital, where she laboured for another three days, without any inch near
delivery. This prompted a Caesarian section which was successful. But her
husband’s eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets when he was slammed a
bill of N45,000! The teacher-husband was able to raise N30,000, with a promise
to offset the balance later.
The hospital refused to budge. He had to threaten to abandon the
mother and the child before they were discharged. Even then, vital drugs were
denied them until the money was fully paid. Another woman, Mrs. Yetunde
Olumide, a fashion designer, also fell into labour during the same period.
Although she had a normal delivery at a private hospital near her house at
Itire, she soon developed post-natal complications, as she began to bleed.
Plans were mooted to refer her to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital,
LUTH, Idi-Araba, a stone throw to their residence, when the bleeding was
getting out of hand. But that was not possible because of the strike. She gave
up the ghost the following day. And because there were no facilities at the
maternity to preserve the child without the mother’s milk, it died two weeks
later too.
Also, in 2002, one Charlie, a local contractor living in Iba area
of Lagos, had
rushed his pregnant wife to a private hospital in Ojo for delivery. It was an
emergency case as it was not possible for the lady to deliver through the
normal channel. To be treated to a Caesarian section, the hospital management
needed a cash deposit of N25,000, which Charlie could not afford. All
entreaties including the pledge of Charlie’s elder sister, Lizzy’s car as
collateral, were refused until the lady’s condition became increasingly
complicated. There was no option of taking her to any General Hospital
due to the health workers’ strike. As she was reluctantly taken into the theatre
to be operated upon, the lady died in the process.
Even then, the hospital management refused to release the lifeless
body of the woman with that of the unborn baby insisting on having their money
before the release of the corpse. It was the quick intervention of neighbours
which prevented a double tragedy, as the man went wild, and like a possessed
beast, started smashing everything and snarling at everybody in sight. The man
even threatened to sue the hospital management for negligence. He told this
writer that it was his threat to abandon the lifeless body of the wife at the
hospital that prompted them to release it to him even as he actually rallied
round his family members in Lagos
to offset the bill.
