Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State on Monday came very hard on the striking Lagos doctors. He was surely not happy about the effects of the lingering action by 800 doctors under the employ of the Lagos State government clamouring for the full implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS). Each of the doctors has been served a dismissal letter dated Friday, May 4, 2012.In the letter, the personnel management board, the disciplinary organ of government which met last month, established against the doctors a case of misconduct – absence from duty without leave or reasonable cause. To nail the striking doctors, the management board also established against them, a case of insubordination for failure to respond to lawful query issued to them.
The letter further reads: “The committee therefore recommends your dismissal from service in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Service Rule Nos. 04502, 04507 and 04508. The board has therefore approved your dismissal. Therefore you are to convey the possession of the properties of the state government in your custody to the Chief Medical Director (CMD).”
The letter was signed by the CMD of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Professor David Oke. Responding to the sack notice, Chairman of the Medical Guild, Dr. Olumuyiwa Odusote, described it as a confirmation of the government’s insensitivity and insincerity to resolve the issue on ground. He said the guild had taken its hands off the matter and had handed the case to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). Odusote, who condemned the state government for its insincerity, said they called the doctors to a meeting on Saturday whereas they had signed their sack letters a day before.
“The meeting held on Saturday at the House of Assembly and they (House members) showed they were partisan on the issue,” he said.
Odusote, however, said the doctors had no regrets for embarking on the strike, adding that the wages of doctors were nothing to write home about. Reacting to the sack shortly after an emergency congress of the association yesterday in Lagos, the State Chairman of NMA, Dr Temiye Edamisan, described the government’s action as draconian and undemocratic and most obscene by any government.
“They are still behaving as if they are in a military (regime). If they do this to the doctors and they survive, they will do it with the other workers in the health team. They have turned everybody to their slave, because they think they are so big now that people should become their slaves. Go and see the taxi drivers who have become their slave,” he stated. In the last five years, doctors under the employment of the state government have embarked on strike too many times to recall. And because of the important role they play in the society, each time they go on strike, many lives are usually lost.
The problem has always been the full implementation of the controversial CONMESS. In September 2010, Lagos State doctors embarked on a three-month strike to press home demand for payment of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure.
The work to rule action was led by Dr. Wiiliams Ayobode although the state government tactically bowed to the doctors. But the strike, this time around took a different dimension because some officials of the state government are tired with the antics of the doctors and are ready to call their bluff. Though Governor Fashola was far away in Australia on official assignment when the strike began, many of those in his cabinet felt that this was one strike too many. Armed policemen were not only invited to disrupt the congress meeting called by the doctors, they also attempted to arrest the chairman of the medical guild, Dr. Odusote.
One of the flimsy excuses given by the doctors for going on strike is the demand for the state government to pay “teaching allowance” for house officers, who are doctors-in-training, still being taught the practical aspects of the job to prepare them well for the challenges of the caring profession.
The Lagos State commissioner for information, Mr. Aderemi Ibirogba told LEADERSHIP that the doctors were inconsiderate for also demanding an increase in their salaries without recourse to the other professionals in the public service system, despite currently receiving the full consolidated medical salary structure, by which the least paid among them (the house officers) receive over N173, 000.00 monthly.
According to him, “As at now, house officers in the state take home a total of N173,927.33, while medical officers on grade level 12, earn between N207,629.75 and N256,903.58 every month. Those on level 13 earn between N260, 690.59 and N309, 303.83 monthly”.
A level 14 medical officers earn between N312,883.83 and N364,613.41 monthly, just as those on level 15 net home between N372,463.50 and N444,311.58 every month.
In the same way, the state pays doctors on grade level 16 between N445,522.00 and N531,205.83 monthly, while those on level 17 are paid between N534,594.67 and N632,658.17. The consultants earn a monthly salary of between N439, 576.50 and N801, 985.09. It should be noted that many of the doctors presently earned more than commissioners and permanent secretaries in the state civil service.
The states spokesman frowned at the habit of the doctors exploiting every flimsy excuse to divert patients from government hospitals to their private clinics, pointing out that most of their private hospitals are located close to government hospitals.
For the chairman, medical advisory committee to the Lagos State governor, Dr Ore Falomo, the doctors are inconsiderate for jettisoning their Hippocratic Oaths for selfish gains, saying, more than a quarter of the striking doctors were newly recruited by the state. Falomo who accused the doctors of being “inconsiderate, disrespectful and fraudulent” said their perpetual strike were capable of putting the medical profession which respects the sanctity of human life into disrepute.
According to him, “There will be replacement of the striking doctors in our hospitals. The NYSC doctors will be deployed to hospitals to take care of emergency services while doctors in private practice will provide free medical services in public hospitals in the state free of charge. The striking doctors should stop playing God.
“We are not justifying strike or no strike, but this is a noble profession that has to do with lives and this is why we are saying that there are better ways to achieve their aims and objectives instead of embarking on strike at the slightest opportunity. Nobody can pay doctors enough, but they should change their methodology”.
To avert this frequent war of attrition between the Lagos State government and doctors, the body has advised that henceforth, there should be an undertaking by house officers and resident doctors not to engage in strike actions.
He said, “We believe medical doctors should be guided by the Hippocratic Oaths sworn to and exhaust all possible avenues for negotiation and lobbying without paralysing healthcare services in entirety”.
But the chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr.Temiye Edamisan, also rose in defence of Dr. Odusote and his members by insisting that his association is in support of the indefinite strike embarked upon by the doctors in the payroll of the state.
Edamisan who lampooned the state government for resorting to use of intimidating measures, said the doctors would not face any disciplinary panel for participating in the three-day warning strike.
“The doctors would not face any panel .We appeal to the Lagos State government to retract the action of war and intimidation it has embarked upon. Any attempt to arrest, dismiss or humiliate any of our members will lead to actions that may spread beyond Lagos State,” he threatened.
Edamisan, who warned new doctors to refuse any attempt by the state government to recruit them to replace the striking doctors, added that, “any doctor recruited to replace the ones Lagos State intends to sack will be sanctioned. Your action would be interpreted as professional misconduct, an offence punishable under the medical and Dental Council of Nigeria Act”.
Not ruling out the possibility of amicable settlement, he hinted that the leadership of the association had written to the state government requesting a meeting in order to resolve the crisis amicably. Presenting a no nonsense posture, the state commissioner for health, Dr. Jide Idris told LEADERSHIP that the issues at stake were strictly administrative issues, saying the doctors must face the disciplinary panel and also provide explanations to the queries issued to them.
Idris noted that the doctor’s refusal to face the panel and answer the queries issued to them for participating in a three-day-warning strike was a violation of the public service rule of the state.
“You cannot fight your employers. If you are a civil servant you must adhere with the rules of the civil service. Discipline must be maintained.
“Doctors cannot wake up and say they are going on strike. If you are a civil servant, your employer deserves to know why you won’t come to work”.
From the political front, the Lagos State governor’s party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, had pleaded with Lagos doctors to bury the hatchet and go back to work.
The Lagos State publicity secretary of the ACN, Joe Igbokwe, advised the doctors to adopt less combative but more result oriented means of advancing their interests.
According to him, the party is worried that Lagos doctors have once again embarked on strike, soon after the last prolonged one and warned that the health and interest of Lagosians should not be compromised over the pursuit of restricted group interests.