Ray of hope for LUTH’s patients as nurses suspend strike

The 52-day strike action embarked upon by nurses at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) owing to welfare and work conditions has been suspended, bringing with it, an added bonus for its multi-million naira gas power plant to become operational.

The 55-year-old health centre has been plagued by epileptic power supply for years. Nurses also had to down tools on June 10, to press home their demands over non-conducive work environment, unpaid salaries, denied allowances, non-promotion of some personnel, and unavailability of basic necessities to work, even as little as disposables.

The lack of consumables included common basic items such as gloves, syringes and needles, gauze and wash hands before and after attending to patients. Nurses have reportedly been using their personal money to buy these materials, plain sheet and making photocopies of hospital stationery for continuation sheet and treatment/prescription sheets.

“After extensive deliberations with the Federal Ministry of Health and LUTH management on issues raised by LUTH nurses, leading to industrial action declared by the state chapter of NANNMS on June 10, some of the issues were addressed. Some have been resolved and some are receiving the attention of the honourable minister of health and some other government agencies,” Adelaja Oluyemisi, LUTH Chairman, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNMS), said.

Adelaja said that at the nurses congress held on Monday, and having consulted with different stakeholders, it was resolved to suspend the strike for work to resume yesterday after 52 days.

It was also revealed that in getting the hospital’s gas powered electricity plant to become functional, the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Finance have resolved to provide the hospital management with support in required guarantees for gas supply to commence and for the power plant to become operational.

The 3.48mw power generating gas plant with potential market value of $4 million constructed in LUTH, under a Public Private Partnership arrangement, has till now remained unutilised since completion in the last quarter of 2015.

BusinessDay reliably gathered in February that an agreement had been reached between LUTH and Oando Nigeria plc, for the provision of gas through a channel from Ojuelegba. However, the contract has been put on hold because Oando insists on being furnished with a bank guarantee.

A reliable source informed BusinessDay that the bank guarantee being requested by Oando could not be obtained by the teaching hospital, as it no longer had control over its finances due to the Treasury Single Account (TSA), being implemented by the Federal Government.

While it was said that the CBN refused to oblige the hospital with the request for bank guarantee, from the revelations by the nurses, it appears the finance ministry has decided to render the task the CBN failed to do.

The LUTH renders services in specialised areas of medicine such as Neuro-Surgery, Haemo-dialysis, Cancer treatment, Eye treatment, Urology, Paediatric Surgery, and Maternal Health, among others.

LUTH also boasts of a comprehensive diagnostic centre and VIP clinic, state-of- the-art laboratories, radio diagnosis, radiotherapy and renal dialysis facilities.

The hospital’s records show from 330 beds at inception, it is the largest teaching hospital in Nigeria, with 761 beds, collaborating with the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos in the training of hundreds of medical, dental, pharmacy and other science students.