Patients groan as doctors’ strike continues

By GILBERT EKEZIE  and GBENGA
ADESUYI, Ibadan
Three days after the strike action embarked upon by the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), skeletal activities are on at the various government hospitals across Lagos State.
The medical doctors in public health institutions embarked on a 5-day warning strike on Wednesday after the association’s December 2013 National Executive Council Meeting held in Minna, Niger State, calling on the Federal Government to meet its demands, especially on the reconstitution and inauguration of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria within 21 days.
Saturday Sun’s visit to some public hospitals in Lagos showed the presence of medical doctors, but they were not on duty. Some doctors were seen in groups discussing, while patients sat in the various wards, waiting to be attended to.
At the Labour wards, Radiodiagnosis, Medical Outpatient and Outpatients units of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, patients were also attended to by doctors on internship, nurses and other hospital attendants.
A patient, who identified himself as Ogar, expressed surprise that he was attended to despite the strike. “With what I heard about the strike, I did not expect that we would be attended to. But thank God that some of the doctors are giving us attention on compassionate grounds.”
Another patient, Mrs. Olatunji Oke, observed that though patients were being given attention, the treatment was not up to expectation. “You can see that those attending to us are young doctors, nurses and other medical attendants. Though some of the doctors are around, they are not at their duty posts.”
Also at Outpatient departments, pharmacy, dermatology unit, special clinic for the Sexually Transmitted Diseases and the Emergency Unit of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), patients were being attended to, and few doctors were spotted.
A medical doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the patients were being attended to due to the nature of their cases. “It is true that we are on strike but we cannot afford to watch these people die, because their cases are so terrible. Some of them cannot live for the next five hours without being given medical attention.”
At the Ajeromi General Hospital, Ajegunle, medical workers were also busy attending to patients.
At the Maternity Unit, some pregnant women were on ground to process their ante-natal visitations, while the outpatients were attended to by some of the doctors, nurses and other medical personnel.
The story is also the same at the Isolo General Hospital as patients were attended to, though not as usual.
At the University College Hospital(UCH), doctors were seen rendering skeletal services when the Saturday Sun visited the hospital, even as relatives of patients groan over the development.
Most of the wards in the hospital were empty, as many of the patients had been discharged.
One of the two doors to the emergency unit was under lock  and key while the other was opened.
At the emergency unit, Saturday Sun noticed some nurses wheeling a female patient to one of the wards. The patient was rushed to the hospital for an undisclosed ailment.
At the surgery unit, it was observed that there were no patients but nurses were sitting down unlike the usual days when the unit was usually filled to capacity. At the Pharmacy unit, relatives of patients were seen making payment for drugs