Nigeria’s crumbling health sector dealt blow by doctors’ strike

The halls of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), one of Nigeria’s largest teaching and referral institution, are largely empty because of a doctors’ strike, which is dealing a blow to the nation’s already crumbling health care sector.

The on-going five day nationwide industrial action by the Nationwide Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has severe implication on the lives of millions of Nigerians who seek medical treatment for sundry ailments.

A medical officer at LUTH in Idi Araba Lagos, told BusinessDay that the lasting solution to incessant strikes by medical workers is if government provides state of the art facilities in the hospitals, while improving their working conditions.

He added that aside from the fact that patients are cramped in a small spaces because of inadequate beds, they are referred to nearby pharmacies to buy drugs, surgery gloves or syringes.

There are instances whereby patients in the adult emergency ward are treated in cars or taxis or on the corridors of the hospitals, because there are no facilities to treat the influx that comes in droves on a daily basis.

At LUTH, only professors and consultants are currently attending to patients, based on the appointment date, as the strike lingers.

Out of 200 patients that visited the hospital only 50 were attended to, while the rest were given fresh appointment dates, sources said.

“There is little they can do to salvage the situation. They will just give most of them a new appointment till the strike is over,” said the medical officer.

Nigeria, with a population of 180 million people, lags far behind other African countries, as far as healthcare is concerned.

More than 95 percent of the nation’s population has no medical insurance and depend on a public health system with too few doctors and dilapidated facilities.

Nigeria’s doctor-patient ratio is 1 per 4,000, compared to 0.8 per 1,000 for South Africa.

The WHO recommends that one doctor should attend to not more than 600 patients.

The Lancet, in its comprehensive study published in the May 18 edition of the medical journal, has placed Nigeria at 140th position with 51 points on Healthcare Access and Quality Index.

The Federal Government will spend N304 billion on health, out a N7.44 trillion 2017 budget, which is equivalent to N1, 688 on the health of each citizen in the year.

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says for Nigeria to surmount its health challenges, it must spend a minimum of N6,908 per Nigerian in a year, which when multiplied by 180 million people will amount to N1.2 trillion.

The aforementioned stumbling blocks have made it practically difficult for the country to surmount challenges like the outbreak of Lasa fever, lack of functioning cancer machines, poor health emergency responses, high maternal and child deaths, and malnutrition.

Sekunmade Adebayo, President of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), LUTH Idi- Araba Chapter, said “we need to break the cycle of continuous negotiations, agreement, strike-on, non – implementations of those agreements because it is turning out like a vicious cycle and we feel it is about time we sort this out finally,” Sekumade told Businessday.

“We keep the strike on as the negotiation remains inconclusive,” Sekumade said.

However, Isaac Adewole the health minister, said that the Federal Government’s health facilities will be open and available to render services to the people, while the government continues to dialogue with the resident doctors to return to work.

The meeting held between the Federal Government and NARD on Wednesday, which finished in the early hours of Thursday morning ended in a deadlock, following prolonged negotiations which remained inconclusive.

The parties unanimously resolved that the nationwide industrial action should be suspended as soon as the payment alert is received from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as promised by the Federal Government’s team.

Despite the promise made by Chris Ngige, the minister of Labour and Employment, that the payment will be made and the association should call off the strike immediately in the interest of the country, the doctors insisted that until they received alerts from their banks for the unpaid salaries, they would not suspend the strike because they do not have any trust in the government.

The resident doctors also decried the minister for putting pressure on them to suspend the strike without any tenable evidence of payment as claimed by the Minister during the opening remarks.

 

BALA AUGIE & ANTONIA OBOKOH