Posted on: Wed 11-03-2015

Last year, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) embarked on 55-day strike to press home demands it said were centred on improvement of the structure and tradition of the profession in addition to clinical governance and to redress injustice.

The strike saw doctors working in government-owned hospitals boycotting work and left a majority of sick Nigerians stranded as they could not afford the exorbitant charges in private hospitals.

The association had issued a 24-point demand including that the position of the Chief Medical Director/ Medical Director must remain sacrosanct to be occupied by a medical doctor as contained in the Act establishing the tertiary hospitals. It also opposed the appointment of directors in hospitals insisting that it distorts the chain of command and induces anarchy while exposing patients to conflicting treatment and management directives with negative consequences.

The doctors demanded appointment of a Surgeon General of the Federation with immediate effect as well as the correction of entry point of a health officer to CONMESS 1 Step 4 as originally contained in MSS/ MSSS while the Registrar/ Medical officer is moved to CONMESS 3 Step 3. The demands also included that grade level 12 (CONMESS 2) in the health sector be skipped for medical and dental practitioners and increment in hazard allowance for medical doctors from the present N5,000 to at least N100, 000 per month, and that the title ‘Consultant’ should not be assigned to non-doctor personnel since consultant describes the relationship between a specialist medical doctor and his patients.

We recall that the medical doctors had objected to the decision of the federal government designating “pharmacists and other cadres of health workers as ‘consultants’, a term that had hitherto been exclusive to the medical doctors, who subsequently under the auspices of Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) challenged the decision and asked the National Industrial Court (NIC) to invalidate the appointment of non-medical doctors as consultants.

However, on July 22, 2013, the NIC granted an order affirming the appointments of some of the non-medical doctors as consultants. Eventually, the doctors proceeded to lay down tools in protest of the new designation for non-medical persons and other issues.

Penultimate week, the NMA renewed its warning to the federal government that its members may be compelled to embark on another strike should the federal government continue to renege on the implementation of agreements it reached with members following the two-month strike last year.

The medical doctors while issuing a veiled threat claimed that they were not only being owed seven-month salary arrears but that the federal government was yet to redeem relevant provisions in the agreement reached between them and their members.

We totally abhour government’s failure to keep a gentleman’s agreement with the medical doctors and other health workers and wish to remind the authority that it would not be the first time it has fallen short of its agreements with various institutions and professional bodies.

Strikes embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), its counterparts ASUP, colleges of education, pensioners, oil workers, among others have largely been due to the federal government’s failure to respect agreements.

However, we do not think embarking on another strike is either desirable or is it the ultimate means of resolving issues. Dialogue, negotiation and persuasion should always be the last resort in conflict resolution.

Peoples Daily strongly believes that although peaceful strike action is a veritable tool to drive home demands in civilised societies, doctors strike is apparently in conflict with the Hippocratic Oath that they had sworn to to give a patient first consideration and human life utmost priority. Should they embark on strike, it could suggest that they neither uphold the sanctity of life nor think the Oath is binding.

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