Lament infrastructural Decay, Non Payment of entitlements, Bad Leadership at Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba

 

HAVING had enough of bad working conditions, members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, recently staged a protest march. They wanted to let the world know something about the dilapidated state ofthe hospital and non payment ofthe staff's promotion allowance since 2011. 

 

The protesting staff comprised of members of National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwifery (NANM), Medical & Dental Consultant's Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) and National Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP). 

 

They were irked by the alleged failure of the Federal Government and the Ministry of Health to look into their plea to unravel the mystery behind the purported letter enabling the continuous stay in office of the out-gone Medical Director, Dr. Rahmon Lawai, whose tenure was believed to have expired on August 21, 2015. 

 

The protesting staff defiled the morning rain and marched round the hospital to express their grievances, chanting solidarity songs In their large numbers, they peacefully demonstrated around the hospital, displaying placards with different inscriptions some of which read: "Dr. R.ALawal, the entire staffrejects you," "EFCC, please come to our rescue," "President Buhari, we voted for change; 

 

please, change Lawal." Speaking with Daily Sun, Mrs. Grace Ijarogbe, Chairperson, MDCAN, said that her association had written a series ofletters to the Ministry of Health, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and other agencies to get clarification on whether it was correct for the elderly medical director to remain in office after the expiration of his tenure. 

 

"The response we got from the Ministry of Health and the circulars they gave us by which they said we should be guided accordingly, did not indicate any elongation in office of the medical director even for one day after the expiration of his tenure on August 21." 

 

 

The protest, according to the Secretary ofNANM, Comrade Alamu Odun, started in 2011 when some of the staff who were then promoted, did not received their arrears and had not got it till date. 

 

"The major issue has been non payment of our five-year salaries and arrears (2011-2015). People have done promotion exercises this year and have been promoted, but the financial aspect of their promotion has not been implemented; even their arrears have not been paid. 

 

"We have had a series of meetings with the management at different times. They kept encouraging us; they kept assuring us that things would be well. But till now, nothing has been done." 

 

He explained that early this year when there was change ofleadership in the country and the President, Muhamadu Buhari promised a bailout for financially-traumatised states and Federal Government-owned institutions, they were made to believe that their papers were submitted in Abuja and processed. He said that was the reason they suspended their 51-day old strike on July 21,2015. He recalled that they were further angered when they heard that Dr. Lawai came back from Abuja on August 28 with a letter reappointing him as acting medical director, a tenure they insisted had expired. 

 

"When we learnt about the letter, we then realised that his trip to Abuja was not for our good. That too, afforded us the opportunity of knowing that even the money we were expecting would not be forth coming as our papers were not processed alongside those of our colleagues in other establishments. We further leant that our papers were not even taken to Abuja at all. We also learnt that some other institutions that had similar problems like us had started receiving their bailout funds; they were paid up to 2013. 

 

"For us, what we have now is a golden opportunity to ask for our right; if we miss it now, we may not get it right again. We see that the leadership of our institution is insincere; they are inconsistent; we have every reason not to believe whatever information we are getting from them. As a matter of fact, what we see in them is nothing but betrayal." 

 

A union member who identified himself simply as Ochuko, told our correspondent during the protest march that: "Our condition of service under Dr. LawaI is dehumanising. This is the only psychiatric hospital in the whole of the federation where health workers work overnight in darkness with psychiatric patients, yet, they must deliver. This is the only psychiatric hospital where water does not run in the bathrooms and toilets. 

 

This is the only psychiatric hospital where bedbugs and all manner of pests have taken over our clinical areas to the extent that some of us have been unfortunate to pick them up and take them home." 

 

Ochuko wondered the kind of services a mental health provider would be rendering if they were traumatised like the way things were at FNPHY. 

 

Another member of staff who did not want her name in print, lambasted the management ofthe hospital, describing their performance in the last four years in charge as the worst ever in the history ofthe institution. She complained about infrastructural decay under their watch. 

 

"The patients didn't have the best in terms of services. There was a time in the past four years that prescription papers were not available in the hospital; at the moment, we make photocopies of prescription papers; even essential hospital consumables are not being made available. The fans in our wards are not working again; our roofs are leaking. We don't want this management anymore." 

 

Efforts made by our correspondent to speak with the medical director and get his own side of the story failed. But a management staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the crisis at the hospital as "a man-made emergency which is avoidable if only the medical director would vacate his seat." 

 

By Anthony Obil

Daily Sun