Medical Guild strike: Causes by lack of communication, understanding — Sanwo-Olu
By Elizabeth Temitope
GOVERNOR Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, has attributed the major cause of doctors' strike to lack of communication and understanding. He appealed to them to call off the 3-day warning strike and return to work.
The governor said this yesterday, during the 2020 Tree Planting Day at Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba, where he commissioned a 36-chamber morgue donated by IHS Towers to the state government.
According to him: “Grievances are natural in any organisation and it will start and end on the table. It is rather unfair and unfortunate that any of us especially the doctors at this time would want to take an opportunistic approach because of the pandemic.
“I think it is rather unfortunate and utterly condemnable and I think I owe the system as the Chief Incident Commander to express and say to you that come back to work. I am still your governor, resume back to work and whatever the issues are, we will sort it out. I am supposed to be a father to all and there is no better engagement that we can have but on the negotiation table.”
On the issue of allowance payment to health workers, the Governor said: “We actually pay people allowances that are twice their monthly salary to serve as motivation and we are the first in the country to do that, we are doing that because we are the epicentre of the pandemic and we needed to show leadership, and show our people that we are concerned and committed to our health workers and so we paid that amount.”
Delay in payment
Besides, the governor explained that the delay in payment of two months COVID-19 allowance was because of the need to do proper enumeration and ensure that the right health workers who have worked during the response get their dues.
He said: “We had a two-month delay because we wanted to be sure that we are giving the right people their dues because it is a lot of money and as I speak, most of them if not all of them have gotten their allowance for the two-month arrears. And what we have paid is more and in some instances twice what the Federal Government is paying.”
On the issue of shortage of health workers, the Governor said: “We have given approval for recruitment of 760 health workers of which 400 are doctors alone. Even the capacity to identify the 400 doctors is also a challenge and that process has started. It is only the health workers and teachers that have that standing rule to replace upon retirement. I have given approval and the process has started with the health service commission.”
On the issue of dismissed doctors, Sanwo-Olu said they were not dismissed but were only redeployed to their primary duty post after spending about three to four months at the isolation centre.
His words: “We realised that people are getting tired, a lot of health workers and doctors have had to work back to back over this period and fatigue was setting in and we said that let us do a change. Initially, we just wanted to a small team, we took the challenge and we felt that we needed to retool them re-energize them, take the ones that have worked here for three months back to their regular work where they will be paid their hazard allowances and bring fresh doctors that are in the hospital here to come and work.
“Any health worker that falls sick or test positive for COVID-19 is to be taken to the dedicated isolation centre. It has been there for over two months. We care for them there. The quarantine themselves there; they don’t need to go their homes to infect their loved ones. Over the last four months, we have had 14 hotels in which all our health workers have been staying.”
On the allegation of disparity of wage paid by the Lagos state government and Federal Government, the Governor declared that the minimum wage in Lagos is higher than what the Federal Government pays.
“We will always have issues around misinformation or lack of information. Or maybe the Commissioner for Health is not always available any time they (Medical Guild) want to meet with him. But the man has a difficult job to do around this pandemic”, he said.
Reacting to the governor’s statement, Medical Guild described the Lagos State government's response as a wrong assumption, claiming that they tried their best to prevent the strike.
In a statement signed by the Medical Guild Chairman and Secretary, Dr. Oluwajimi Sodipo, and Dr. Ismail Ajibowo, they said that the response was only out to create a wrong impression that the strike was being masterminded by a few members of the Medical Guild.
The statement reads: “The Medical Guild is a professional body with well-skilled members, an affiliate of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA with the aim of catering for the welfare of its members and providing world-class medical services to Lagosians, Nigerians and foreigners.
“We start by drawing the attention of the government that more than 200 medical doctors who are members of the Guild have been infected with COVID-19, many of whom also infected their families with attendant short and long term complications. This is a testament to our desire to serve our patients and our calling.”
The Medical Guild claimed that they had also been at the forefront of advocating for priority testing for all health care workers and patients on admission in hospitals so as to the upscale provision of safe medical services, suggestions which had been largely jettisoned until the declaration of strike action.
Responding to some of the issues raised about the wages, salaries and emoluments, they said: “Apart from the fact that there are security implications of releasing remuneration of employees publicly, the state government has maintained that they have no agreement with the COVID-19 volunteers at the isolation centre, hence, the government has been paying any amount it deemed fit, usually after agitations.
“The Federal Government, on the other hand, had earlier engaged the various medical/health associations in discussions and came up with a negotiated agreement and we expect the same to be done to our members in Lagos State especially as we are the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.”
Throwing light on the increased hazard allowance in the state, the guild said the increase, which was quoted as being increased by over 400 percent, translates to an increase from N5,000 to N25,000.
GOVERNOR Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, has attributed the major cause of doctors' strike to lack of communication and understanding. He appealed to them to call off the 3-day warning strike and return to work.
The governor said this yesterday, during the 2020 Tree Planting Day at Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba, where he commissioned a 36-chamber morgue donated by IHS Towers to the state government.
According to him: “Grievances are natural in any organisation and it will start and end on the table. It is rather unfair and unfortunate that any of us especially the doctors at this time would want to take an opportunistic approach because of the pandemic.
“I think it is rather unfortunate and utterly condemnable and I think I owe the system as the Chief Incident Commander to express and say to you that come back to work. I am still your governor, resume back to work and whatever the issues are, we will sort it out. I am supposed to be a father to all and there is no better engagement that we can have but on the negotiation table.”
On the issue of allowance payment to health workers, the Governor said: “We actually pay people allowances that are twice their monthly salary to serve as motivation and we are the first in the country to do that, we are doing that because we are the epicentre of the pandemic and we needed to show leadership, and show our people that we are concerned and committed to our health workers and so we paid that amount.”
Delay in payment
Besides, the governor explained that the delay in payment of two months COVID-19 allowance was because of the need to do proper enumeration and ensure that the right health workers who have worked during the response get their dues.
He said: “We had a two-month delay because we wanted to be sure that we are giving the right people their dues because it is a lot of money and as I speak, most of them if not all of them have gotten their allowance for the two-month arrears. And what we have paid is more and in some instances twice what the Federal Government is paying.”
On the issue of shortage of health workers, the Governor said: “We have given approval for recruitment of 760 health workers of which 400 are doctors alone. Even the capacity to identify the 400 doctors is also a challenge and that process has started. It is only the health workers and teachers that have that standing rule to replace upon retirement. I have given approval and the process has started with the health service commission.”
On the issue of dismissed doctors, Sanwo-Olu said they were not dismissed but were only redeployed to their primary duty post after spending about three to four months at the isolation centre.
His words: “We realised that people are getting tired, a lot of health workers and doctors have had to work back to back over this period and fatigue was setting in and we said that let us do a change. Initially, we just wanted to a small team, we took the challenge and we felt that we needed to retool them re-energize them, take the ones that have worked here for three months back to their regular work where they will be paid their hazard allowances and bring fresh doctors that are in the hospital here to come and work.
“Any health worker that falls sick or test positive for COVID-19 is to be taken to the dedicated isolation centre. It has been there for over two months. We care for them there. The quarantine themselves there; they don’t need to go their homes to infect their loved ones. Over the last four months, we have had 14 hotels in which all our health workers have been staying.”
On the allegation of disparity of wage paid by the Lagos state government and Federal Government, the Governor declared that the minimum wage in Lagos is higher than what the Federal Government pays.
“We will always have issues around misinformation or lack of information. Or maybe the Commissioner for Health is not always available any time they (Medical Guild) want to meet with him. But the man has a difficult job to do around this pandemic”, he said.
Reacting to the governor’s statement, Medical Guild described the Lagos State government's response as a wrong assumption, claiming that they tried their best to prevent the strike.
In a statement signed by the Medical Guild Chairman and Secretary, Dr. Oluwajimi Sodipo, and Dr. Ismail Ajibowo, they said that the response was only out to create a wrong impression that the strike was being masterminded by a few members of the Medical Guild.
The statement reads: “The Medical Guild is a professional body with well-skilled members, an affiliate of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA with the aim of catering for the welfare of its members and providing world-class medical services to Lagosians, Nigerians and foreigners.
“We start by drawing the attention of the government that more than 200 medical doctors who are members of the Guild have been infected with COVID-19, many of whom also infected their families with attendant short and long term complications. This is a testament to our desire to serve our patients and our calling.”
The Medical Guild claimed that they had also been at the forefront of advocating for priority testing for all health care workers and patients on admission in hospitals so as to the upscale provision of safe medical services, suggestions which had been largely jettisoned until the declaration of strike action.
Responding to some of the issues raised about the wages, salaries and emoluments, they said: “Apart from the fact that there are security implications of releasing remuneration of employees publicly, the state government has maintained that they have no agreement with the COVID-19 volunteers at the isolation centre, hence, the government has been paying any amount it deemed fit, usually after agitations.
“The Federal Government, on the other hand, had earlier engaged the various medical/health associations in discussions and came up with a negotiated agreement and we expect the same to be done to our members in Lagos State especially as we are the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.”
Throwing light on the increased hazard allowance in the state, the guild said the increase, which was quoted as being increased by over 400 percent, translates to an increase from N5,000 to N25,000.
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