The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr Linus Awute, has condemned the ongoing strike embarked by some resident doctors in federal hospitals, saying it is untimely.

 

Some resident doctors in federal hospitals, including the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), have been on strike for weeks over welfare packages.

 

Awute, who criticised the strike on Thursday during the commissioning of Societe Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopédique et de Traumatologie, (SICOT) Education Centre at the National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi (NOHI), Lagos, stated that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was too young to experience strike from the resident doctors.

 

Awute explained that the resident doctors should have created room for dialogue with the government before embarking on the strike. He commended the SICOT Centre which he said would "advance skills and knowledge of orthopedic services" in Nigeria and the Western African sub-region.

 

 

On the strike, Awute said. "There are many things we ask in our prayers when we are speaking to the Almighty Creator, but not all the things we want that we get. But responsible people still remain gratified that they are alive and that they have the gift of life. This is a new government.

 

We are saying that this type of strike is wrong. Second, we have not seen anything that threatens the existence or the foundation of the resident doctors to warrant a strike of this magnitude. Remember that everybody in the health system and every worker in the health system have one problem or the other.

 

So, you don't just embark on strike as a means of solving that problem. First of all, you have to tow the line of dialogue. But so far, I have not seen any moment of dialogue that preceded this strike under this present administration.

 

By Joseph Okoghenun

All Africa