As the ongoing strike by health workers enters another stage, life is no longer the same at FCT hospitals, FRIDAY OLOKOR reports
As the ongoing strike by the Joint
Health Sector Unions continues, many residents of the Federal Capital
Territory are displeased with the Federal Government for ignoring the
demands of the striking health workers and paying attention to only the
forthcoming general elections.
Investigation shows that since the
strike started, many government hospitals in Abuja have been under lock
and key. Most of the hospitals stopped admitting patients, while the
Accident and Emergency Department remained open to out-patients.
During a visit to the Kubwa General
Hospital, which used to be a beehive of activities before the strike,
our correspondent observed that the A & E was open for services, but
there was not a single worker in the labour, post-natal and ante-natal
wards, as well as the maternity theatre, mothers’ room and special care
baby unit.
However, some residents, such as Mr.
Paul Onche, think the ongoing strike has some advantages. One of them is
that in the absence of nurses, patients now find it a lot easier to
gain access to medical doctors than before.
“Nurses are not as relevant as they
claim to be. Government should let nurses know that without them,
hospitals can still function very well,” Onche said, in an interview
with our correspondent. But, a medical laboratory scientist, Kate
Utachukwu, disagreed with him.
Making a case for the striking nurses
and other personnel, Utachukwu said, “As you can see, everywhere is dry
and only two doctors are on duty. The nurses, cleaners, pharmacists and
laboratory scientists are not working. It is not in the best interest of
this country for one person to be doing all the work. Only two doctors
cannot keep a hospital going.
“Since nurses are the ones that suffer
most in hospitals, they are supposed to be receiving bigger salaries.
Nurses should not be receiving chewing gum money, while others are
receiving fat salaries. It is not easy to clean up patients and bathe
them properly. I have been seeing them because I am a lab scientist. It
is not only the doctors that make hospitals function. The government
should give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs
to God by treating everybody equally.”
Utachukwu’s position was corroborated by
another female resident, Chidinma Onuoha. “The strike should dominate
national discourse instead of the general elections. Life comes first.
If the hospitals are not working and there is no life, who will vote in
the forthcoming elections? If nurses are not important, can doctors
alone deliver a baby? Nurses have a role to play. So, please, let
everybody intervene and put pressure on our government to act fast
because Nigerians are dying,” Onuoha said.
Despite these challenges, the Medical
Director of Kubwa General Hospital, Dr. Mohammed Danfulani, is battling
to ensure that no casualty is recorded during the strike.
Danfulani says, in an interview with our
correspondent, that the major challenge facing the management of the
hospital is getting supportive staff to work in the laboratories.
Apart from attending to some of the
pregnant women that have been coming for post-natal care, he notes, the
hospital has been paying attention to emergency cases.
“A pregnant woman had an emergency case
on Monday. We mobilised ourselves and attended to her. Now the woman and
her baby are okay,” he says.
When our correspondent visited the Wuse
General Hospital in Zone 3 on Tuesday, skeletal services were being
provided. Due to its central location, the hospital used to be one of
the busiest in the FCT.
However, now that the strike is biting
harder, the story is no longer the same. One of the patients at the
hospital, Nnenna Okonkwo, describes the situation as a very trying one
for Nigeria. Just like most other residents, she thinks the Federal
Government should have made an effort to dialogue with the striking
members of JOHESU, instead of the “needless attention on election” that
is overheating the country.
Admitting that there are challenges that
must be tackled, the Medical Director of Wuse Hospital, Dr. Chibundu
Obiora, says the management has decided to place a suspension on the
delivery of babies and to pay more attention to emergency cases.
He said, “The doctors are on ground and
they are doing as much as they can. We are not running full blown
services. We are making sure that the Accident and Emergency Department
is running. In the Out-patient Clinic, we are equally attending to
patients who come to complain about one ailment or the other.
“But we are not admitting patients
because nurses and other workers are on strike. Although we are running
our ante-natal clinic, we have stopped delivering babies because there
are no midwives to do the job.”
A similar situation prevailed at the
National Hospital. Doctors were seen attending to patients and
prescribing drugs. But admission was very low. Further investigations
revealed that the management of the hospital resorted to using interns,
while the pharmacy, physiotherapy, laboratory and few other departments
were still open.
The spokesperson of National Hospital,
Dr. Tayo Haastrup, expressed disappointment that the JOHESU strike has
lasted over two months. He urged the striking health workers to suspend
the action “in the spirit of the coming elections.”
Noting that doctors in private hospitals
might be benefitting from the ongoing strike, Haastrup said, “I am sure
the private hospitals are really feeding well and laughing all the way
to the bank by now. JOHESU should, as a matter of urgency, reconsider
their stand for the sake of saving lives. They should suspend the strike
temporarily and continue the negotiations. However, let it be clear
that all medical doctors are not on strike and they are all rendering
their services.”
Although the A&E Department of
Asokoro General Hospital was open for business by the time our
correspondent visited there, there were no traces of activities at the
hospital. There was no doctor on duty. A patient, Mrs. Funke Agbaje,
told our correspondent that she had to visit the hospital because she
could not afford the cost of treatment in a private hospital.
Efforts made by our correspondent to
speak with some security men met a brickwall as they were not ready to
volunteer any information. Several calls and text message to the Medical
Director of Asokoro Hospital, Dr. Ahmadu Abubakar, yielded no response.
JOHESU had earlier directed its members
nationwide to suspend all concessional and skeletal services and ensure
total compliance with the strike action. The union, which advised
members to prepare “for a long drawn battle”, vowed that it would not
call off the ongoing strike in government-owned hospitals until its
demands were granted.
The union said the decision to continue
the strike was due to the tactics of intimidation and brutalisation of
its members in demanding for their legitimate rights and the obvious
exhibition of bias against it by the Federal ministry of Health,
including the refusal of key officers of the Ministry to attend the
meeting of December 15, 2014.
The President of JOHESU, Ayuba Wabba and
President of Nigerian Medical Association and National Union of Allied
Health Professionals, Mr. Felix Faniran, had noted that instead of
showing concern and demonstrating commitment towards bringing an end to
the plight of Nigerians and health workers, government had resorted to
acts of intimidation.
When contacted for their reactions, the
Head (Public Relations Unit), Health and Human Services Secretariat of
the FCT, Mr. Badiru Yakassai and Spokesperson of University of Abuja
Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Mr. Frank Omagbon, said they were on
leave and would not comment on the issue.
For JOHESU, the battle line is drawn and
with regard to its commitment to rescue the health sector from
collapse, there will be no retreat or surrender. But nobody is sure who
will blink first, between government and the striking workers.
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