The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole today said the nation will soon get out of the ongoing strike by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU).
Adewole said this in Osogbo, capital of Osun State in a brief chat with Daily Trust on the sideline of the Children’s Day celebration at the Osogbo City Stadium.
He said the Federal Government was making necessary moves to end the strike. “We are handling the JOHESU strike and i can assure you that will be over soon. The nation will soon get over it.”
The Nigeria Medial Association (NMA), Osun State branch had accused members of the JOHESU of harassing medical doctor who were doing their jobs at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), Ile-Ife.
The Chairman of NMA in Osun, Dr Tokunbo Olajumoke said the doctors were ready to work and provide proper healthcare services to patients. He cautioned the striking JOHESU members to desist from intimidating doctors.
Olajumoke said the JOHESU members were violent in the manner they were going about their strike as they were desperate to create the impression that it was impossible for the hospital to exist without them. He lamented that the JOHESU members in the hospital locked up critical facilities that the doctors need to work with just to frustrate the doctors.
The NMA chairman said the doctors would continue to do their jobs and render healthcare services to the people regardless of the JOHESU strike. He urged the management of the hospital to provide adequate security for the doctors in the hospital to enable them do their jobs.
A source close to the Federal Ministry of Health said the Federal Government was not ready to increase the salaries of the JOHESU members because the medical doctors would also demand for more money if the demands of JOHESU was granted.
The source said if the JOHESU members remain adamant on the strike, the federal government may sack them and recruit new set of people who are ready to work.
Meanwhile, the Osun NMA in a press statement jointly signed by the NMA Chair and secretary, Dr Olalekan Ajayi urged the federal government to engage ad-hoc staff temporarily to assist Doctors in the hospital so as to ensure smooth running of health care services pending the resolution of the JOHESU strike.
NMA warned that the January 2014 agreement that any increment in CONHESS salary scale must be followed by a corresponding adjustment in the CONMESS scale.
