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Reports getting across to DailyPost indicate that healthcare services are yet to commence fully in Federal and State hospitals days after doctors under the aegis of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, suspended their 55-day old strike.
Several hours after most health institutions across the Federation opened for the day’s activities, medical doctors were not seen at their duty posts while a few who were present were said to be in a meeting.
Some of the doctors who pleaded anonymity informed that they were not properly received by their Chief Medical Directors, CMDs, whom they said gave them a cold shoulder as they resumed for work on Monday. This, they noted, made them doubt whether the NMA and the government had actually come to a common ground as regards contentious issues that led to the strike in the first place.
One of the doctors said that the 16,000 resident doctors sacked a week ago across the country are yet to resume in their various hospitals, with those of them he knows informing him that their fate is still uncertain to them.
A visit to some of the hospitals in Lagos revealed a near total absence of patients at the various hospital departments with few doctors who claimed to have resumed duty offering skeletal services in the outpatient clinics and wards. The situation, in hospitals visited, appears not to have changed from what it was while the strike lasted.
From the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH; Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, NOHL, among others, the situation was the same as few patients were seen lying helplessly at the entrance with no immediate assistance in sight.
When contacted, the Chairman of LUTH Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, Dr. Olubunmi Omojowolo, said the strike had been suspended but there were lots of intricate cases surrounding the strike.
Hear him, “Generally, after calling off a strike, it takes some time before things will start falling into place and this particular strike, is complicated by the fact that resident doctors are still sacked. The Federal Government is yet to reverse their decision and the resident doctors constitute the bulk of doctors in Teaching Hospitals.
While affirming that other cadre of doctors, notably the consultants cannot do much without the resident doctors, Omojowolo said: “even now, the resident doctors are on ground but we cannot work until the Federal government withdraws the circular.”
DailyPost learnt that in Kano, a huge crowd of Out Patients who were sighted in all the three tertiary health institutions on Monday left home disappointed as there were no doctors on duty to attend to them.
Beds were still empty at the Malam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital as no patient has been admitted, while the same scenario held sway at other public hospitals including the Murtala Mohammed Hospital and Abdullahi Wase Hospital.
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