THREE weeks into her industrial action, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) is not giving in to the cries of the people to call off the strike, as she sticks to her guns in her fight to have the 24 point demand she made to the federal government fulfilled.

  Activities at government-owned hospitals in the country have been left crippled, as nurses and other attendants, sit idly, or walk about the premises doing nothing. In some hospitals, few doctors, mostly consultants walk in and out to attend to patients.

    The patients’ plights are, however, worsened by the fact that they have no other choices, but to wait for the doctors to call of the strike, as they cannot afford the charges of the private hospitals.

   One of the patients, Mr. Ahmed, who had waited for many hours for a doctor to attend to him said, “They are not attending to us. They think we don’t have any other thing to do today, other than sit down and wait for them. It is no fair. It is also not free.  Had it been it was free, we would have said that this is why they have gone on strike; but it is not.

     He added: “It is sad they have also chosen to add the children to the fight, as there seems to be no one to attend to them too.”

   Like Ahmed, other patients in government –controlled hospitals have been left to hang on to their illnesses, pending favorable outcome in the discussions between the doctors and the federal government. 

    Another patient, Tokunbo, had a story, almost the same as that of Ahmed: “This is bad. When will Nigeria change? I have been here for over two hours and there is no one to attend to me. We were a lot more than this (referring to the population of the patients), but most of us have left. What do you expect them to do, when some crazy people have decided to put money above the lives of the citizens: Sit and die?”

    At the Lagos State Teaching Hospital, LUTH, the scenario is much worse, as the compound looked deserted, except for the students at the medical college.