Posted on: Fri 18-07-2014

Majority Leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Ajibayo Adeyeye, yesterday declared support for the on-going industrial action by doctors, saying the Nigerian Medical Association’s demands are justifiable.

The legislator, who is a medical doctor, expressed displeasure over the situation but maintained that the demands of the striking workers are not out of place. 
Adeyeye, while speaking on a programme organised by the correspondents covering the state House of Assembly, said the health sector is in distress “due to unnecessary rivalry among nurses, lab technologists, physiotherapists and other allied groups who see themselves as equal to doctors and always attempting to usurp the responsibility of doctors”.
He condemned a situation where someone who is not a doctor is made the head of a hospital, adding: “Doctors are trained to train patients, so why should a matron who is not a qualified doctor, but simply because she has been working in the sector for some years refuse to take instructions from a doctor”. 
“It is a profession where we are taught almost everything in the interest of patients and the public at large. As an employer of doctors, I don’t have to see your certificate before I know if you are one.” 
If I ask questions, your responses will tell me who you are. Now, nurses, pharmacists and laboratory attendants are giving treatments to patients. Quacks have infiltrated the sector.  Almost everywhere you go, there are quacks attending to patients,” he said. 
He called on government at the federal and state level as well as members of the general public to treat doctors fairly.

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