Resident doctors at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, are threatening to resume strike over Lagos State Government’s failure to meet their demands.
The President of the Association of Resident Doctors, LASUTH branch, Dr Fatai Balogun, said the action became necessary after efforts to get the state government to find replacements for some house officers and resident doctors who had left the hospital, failed to yield the desired results.
He said, “It would be recalled that about four months ago, the association embarked on industrial action to demand the replacement of house officers and resident doctors who had left LASUTH. We suspended the strike after the government promised to grant our request.
“It is, however, disheartening that the state government has failed to keep its promise. As a result, our members are overworked and falling ill because each man is made to take up the duties of six or eight doctors,” Balogun lamented.
Stressing that the exodus from LASUTH had led to a reduction in the number of resident doctors from 840 to less than 200, he said, “It appears that the only language that the government understands is an avoidable industrial action. All we are asking for is the seamless employment of resident doctors and house officers. The association will resume the suspended strike action with a three-day warning strike, which will commence by 8.am on Monday, January 28, 2019. “During the warning strike, none of our members will carry out any official duty in the hospital. If after the three-day strike our demands have not been met then the congress will meet to decide the next line of action.”
Reacting to the development, the Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Prof Adetokunbo Fabanwo, said the new Head of Service, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, is working tirelessly to address the issue of shortage of resident doctors and house officers in LASUTH.
“I am sure they will not go on strike because the HoS believes in automatic replacement in other to address the shortage of staff in the hospital,” Fabanwo added.
