There was drama and chaos at the Isolo General Hospital Monday 12th January, as striking health workers went on rampage leaving scores of patients to their fate.Hundreds of patients who were at the hospital seeking medical attention were abandoned, their faces showed frustration as they unsuccessfully begged to be attended to, but help hardly came, as the nurses were no where to be found. Doctors on duty were however seen making efforts to remedy the situation, but their best was hardly enough to save the situation as patients left the hospital in frustration and anger.
One of the doctors on duty said they cannot do much to save the day without the nurses around. One funny thing was the fact that the nurses disguised themselves to avoid being recognized by patients as they do not want the patients to plead their reconsideration of their stand.
The commotion was caused by the national strike embarked upon by the association of Nigerian nurses and midwives, the strike first started 4th November 2014 with the federal health institutions, while states and local governments joined the strike December 5th. The association led by its Lagos State Chapter Chairman, Comrade Mrs. Olatunde Olusola, went round all the government hospitals in the state to enforce and ensure compliance.While addressing the striking health workers at Isolo general hospital Monday, the Chairman National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives Lagos State Chapter Comrade Mrs Olatunde Olusola said "we thank God, since this struggle started we have been able to achieve one or two things, but we cannot afford to suspend now, it is very very dangerous, if we do not get what we want now and we suspend, it means in another two months we will start all over again because this time we do not want any promise, we are tired of promises, they have promised before and we called it off, even you people were abusing us for calling it off, some of you said that we have been settled, that they have given us money that was why we called it off, but it is not true, that is why the strike is inevitable, we are not happy going on strike but our demands must be met" the chair lady ended her address by urging the health workers to "go home and rest, give your husbands breast to suck" she said.
While speaking to News24 Extra, Olusola said "the struggle is not for nurses alone, it is all other health sector apart from the medical doctors, so we have the nurses, the pharmacists, laboratories, health attendance etc". She said the strike is a national strike and the people at the national level have been meeting with the government, "before we embarked on this strike our people at the national level have met with the government fourteen times but negotiation broke down, for all the agitations, non were being attended to, that was why we went on this strike.It is important to note that the Joint Health Union rarely go on strike because of the humanitarian nature of their various jobs, Olusola said the health workers would have gone on this strike long ago but for the sensitive nature of their jobs they held back, she said they believe that when a life is lost, no amount of money will be able to bring it back, but this time the strike is inevitable because they've given the government a long rope but they are not ready to attend to their demands.Olusola called on the government to listen to their cry and attend to their demands "even if all our demands are not met at once, let some of them be attended to and let them also tell us when they will implement the others, so we could all go back to work".Olusola said their agitations includes but not limited to the issue of medical doctors governing all the health professions "As a nurse for example, I should be able to aspire to the height of my profession, but then in a situation where you have doctors governing all other professions, laboratory doctors want to be there, pharmacy and even board of nursing doctors want to govern all until very recently, then the issue of consultancy, as there is consultancy in medicine, we should have consultancy in all other health professions, though the pharmacy has been given, but we are now talking of other professions like the medical lab, nurses, we are saying let us be allowed to govern our various houses". she also lamented "for a nurse to be on grade-level fourteen for twelve - thirteen years no promotion, with all requirements and conditions fulfilled and still there is no promotion, it is frustrating and not motivating, you have graduate nurses, you said they should go to school, they should be graduate certificated and they brought their certificates, some of them even have masters, and uptil this moment only very few have been promoted"
"In my own association, our scheme of service we have been on it for the past 35 years, the federal ministry of health took us to court and we won, they took us to national industrial court and we won, now the court ordered the government, go and implement the scheme of service and up till this moment that has not been done, so we are saying no to all these" she said.
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