Unless there is a last-minute intervention from the Lagos State Government, resident doctors at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital are set to go on strike on September 5, to press home their demands.
In an emergency press conference held on Saturday at the LASUTH Resident Doctors lounge in Ikeja, the acting President of the association, Dr Ibrahim Ogunbi, lamented the state government’s refusal to employ house officers for the hospital, which had been affecting their work.
Ogunbi said that despite all efforts at negotiating and lobbying to ensure uninterrupted health care service delivery in LASUTH, concrete action had not been implemented.
He said, “After a 21-day ultimatum, which expired on August 23, the congress resolved that the grace of one week be given for the immediate employment of resident doctors which will put an end to the recurrent shortage of doctors in LASUTH.
“Failure to implement this will lead to a total warning strike for three days starting from 8 am on the 5th of September, 2018 followed by an indefinite partial strike during which only emergencies will be attended to until expected response is obtained,” he noted.
Ogunbi stressed that the shortage of resident doctors had been recurring for the past three years without any structured policy in place for regular replacement of exited house officers and residents, thereby creating loopholes in the provision of clinical service delivery.
The immediate past president of the association, Dr Adeola Badmus, said the proposed strike was to avert the looming danger in the hospital as the current resident doctors could not handle the large influx of patients when the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, Ayinke House, was inaugurated.
