• Friday, March 29, 2024
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BusinessDay

Strike threat: LUTH assures public of uninterrupted operations

Following a strike threat by the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), the management of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) has assured the general public that the hospital would be open for normal operations.

The management said the ARD, through a communiqué which surfaced on social media, had threatened to shut-down the hospital by calling on all LUTH resident doctors and House Officers to embark on an indefinite strike.

The strike is expected to take effect from today, Friday, 7th June 2019 unless LUTH Management meets their expectations and complies with their following demands.

These include: employment of resident doctors and House Officers into all Departments; installation of street lights in all corners of the Hospital, Payment of all outstanding salaries and arrears to House Officers and Resident Doctors.

But in a statement signed by Olufemi Fasanmade Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, LUTH’s management said that the Hospital will be open for business and no services will be shut down in the facility, adding that some of the demands were not within the powers of the management to meet.

“LUTH does not employ Resident Doctors and House Officers. Each of these cadres is ADMITTED periodically for training, under specific guidelines, rules and regulations. Each person so admitted into training is paid while in the Hospital for a specified period while completing their study,” it said.

On streetlights, LUTH Management said it had earlier secured assurances from a corporate organisation to install bright LED streetlights within the premises. But the promised donation failed to materialise.

According to the management, “the Institution on its own commenced the phased installation of the first 150 street lights as earlier planned. This included modifying the existing electricity poles and wire circuits. It is a delight to see what has been accomplished thus far,” it said.

Concerning Outstanding Arrears and Salaries to House Officers and Resident Doctors, the management said that Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information payment system (IPPS) pays directly into the bank account of each Federal employee from Abuja

“Thus, all salary issues are now between each individual and IPPIS, through an IPPIS Desk Officer in each Institution. It is therefore pure fabrication on the part of the ARD President, who knows all these, to claim that LUTH owes salaries to resident doctors.

“For the avoidance of doubt, LUTH owes no salaries to any resident doctor. Rather, IPPIS does, as no money was paid to LUTH for any resident doctor’s salary. The fact remains that salaries are computed and paid directly from Abuja through the Federal Ministry of Finance on the IPPS portal,” the statement reads.

Hence, LUTH’s management said the notice of the impending strike was ill-informed and unnecessary. However, it assured all peace-loving LUTH workers that no efforts would be spared to protect lives and property within LUTH at all times.