Letter: Of Sacked Lagos Doctors

Posted by admin Headlines, Letters Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

By Clarius Ugwuoha

I am neither Lagosian nor a medical doctor. My views are absolutely disinterested, informed by concern for the plight of the masses caught on the wrong side of the fighting giants.

Neither the Lagos State government nor the resident doctors formerly in her employ could be absolved of complicity in the unfolding drama with Lagosians as victims. Whatever the issues, the intransigence of both parties – failed promises, series of strikes and horse-trading – where life is concerned is callous and unacceptable. My first salvos are for the Lagos State government, for failing to implement the wage increment it promised the doctors at the end of 2010. Did the government, hard-pressed, lure the then striking drivers back to work with ephemeral promises or did she run into challenges on the course of executing the undertaking? It would be fraudulent to make promises one had no intention to keep.

Back to the doctors, who had sworn to protect and secure life, as part of initiation into the medical profession. Strike as a weapon for certain category of workers or public servants seems rather intimidating and bizarre. Take, for instance, the armed forces, the police and, of course, my friends the doctors. What baffled me was the frequency of the strike action by the doctors which had become a national recurring decimal. It was so bad that today, whenever the term Lagos Doctors is mentioned, what comes to mind immediately is not excellence in service, but strike or some other form of industrial dispute! For the very essence of an institution to be so denigrated in the course of pursing perfection as to appear ornate and banal, is counterproductive.

Would it be proper that in place of tendering resignation letters when it became apparent that the State government had reneged on their promises one too many, they resorted to trading the lives of innocent patients by strike action? Several pleas from well-meaning Nigerians were ignored as the doctors matched the obduracy of the State government.

We cannot tell the number of casualties of the dispute apart from the sacked doctors themselves. Lives could have been lost. And what is in place today, with a whole generation of doctors swept away is a near-vacuum. It could lead to more serious consequences of loss of faith in the Health system in Lagos.
How to resolve the impasse? Maintain status quo! Recalling the doctors to continue further strike actions is unnecessary, an experiment worse than the present condition. Lagos State and indeed, the whole nation, can at least avoid this kind of imbroglio.

A standardized and harmonized wage bill is necessary. It should highlight the wages earnable by any category of workers in the civil service and even in the industries. It should have minimum and maximum service conditions, outside which range any other condition is not permissible by law. The permissible range should be internationally standardized and commensurate, with, of course, our peculiar realities in mind. This way, any worker entering for say, into the Health sector, would know from start the obtaining conditions and be able to decide for themselves.

By Clarius Ugwuohawp_posts