Lagos—The storm has been brewing in the Lagos State health sector over the months, broke yesterday as doctors under the aegis of the Medical Guide made good its threat to embark on indefinite strike over irreconcilable matters with the Lagos State government.
Hundreds of patients who turned up at the public hospitals in the state expressed surprise at the doctor’s action as they were caught unawares. The doctors employed by the State are protesting the government’s failure to accede to their demands.
The Medical Guild, the umbrella body of the doctors serving in the state’s public hospitals, had on March 8 issued a 10-day ultimatum to government to pay all outstanding monies allegedly withheld as a result of previous strike, leadership of the Guild directed that all clinics and General outpatients departments, GOPD, would remain shut, while all elective surgeries were suspended while only emergencies and critically ill patients were to be attended to.
At the Lagos State University Teachiing Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, a number of patients, most of who arrived as early as 6:30am were later turned back after several hours of waiting for attention. When reporters arrived the hospital around 9:30am, there was calm at the entrance gates, even right up to the wards. Things were looking normal and the situation at the gate however, apparently gave hope to many of the patients that their appointments with doctors at the hospital would be kept. Unfortunately, many received the shock of their lives on arrival at the Health Records department where the scenario was a contrast of what was happening outside.
Culled from Vanguard
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