LAGOS—Healthcare delivery services at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, yesterday worsened as other workers joined the striking members of the Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, to declare total strike.

The development completely grounded the skeletal services put in place to cushion effects of the prevailing industrial unrest in the hospital.

Workers, who joined the striking resident doctors, are nurses and midwives under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives; the Senior Staff Association of Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associatied Instituitions, SSAUTHRIAI; the Non Academic Staff Union Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria. For eight days, the hospital has been overwhelmed by industrial action.

Day after day, hopes that a speedy resolution of the crisis would be achieved have been dashed. The current situation at the hospital was so bad that our reporter who monitored the strike in the hospital did not encounter any of the nurses .

At the various clinics visited, no nurse was sighted except in the wards. Although, there were hospital staff on ground, services were not rendered.

Many of the staff were seen in groups discussing the situation.

A young man who brought his aged father to the hospital could not but pour his anger and disappointment at both the hospital and the striking workers.

The young man who identified himself as Godwin, wondered why the parties were playing politics with Nigerian lives.

When Vanguard approached him, he said: “They are not at work. I brought my dad but not even nurses are around to attend to us. Last week was better than today. The consultants were seeing patients but it seems all of them have joined. I excused myself from work to bring my father only to be told they are not at work. It is frustrating.”

 

BY CHIOMA OBINNA & GABRIEL OLAWALE

Vanguard