Towards Preventing Strikes In Health Sector

Emmanuel Ikpegbu

Nigeria has been beset by a number of strikes and industrial actions involving virtually all sectors of the economy. From the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and from the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) to their senior counterparts in the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, the story is the same.

The unanswered question then is why all these strikes? Why has industrial action become the last resort to resolve industrial disputes?

If strikes can be permitted as a way of settling disputes between employees and employers, what about essential sectors like the medical?

On several occasions, doctors and nurses have embarked on strikes to press home their demands. The effects of this on patients are better imagined as many lives have been lost in the process. Why would a set of people who run essential services second to God’s – life saving – go on strike?

Recently, the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of Imo State University Teaching Hospital (IMSUTH), Umuna, Orlu, went on indefinite strike following its management’s refusal to implement the earlier agreements. The raison d’etre for the industrial action was to save the institution from decadence and imminent collapse. They argued that major medical equipment procured with tax payers’ money for over 24 months are lying waste. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) device and Computed Tomography Scan (CT-Scan) are among the machines that have not been put to use since their acquisition. Whereas, these machines need only a little amount to make them functional.

There is also the issue of non-payment of 12 House Officers for the past five years. The medical workers are demanding for wage increase and better condition of service. They posit that a better working condition will foster efficient services.

There is no gainsaying that our medical doctors deserve better attention, considering the amount of years they put in studies before attaining this height and the importance of their role to humanity. They are charged with such a “godly” role in the society that makes them special specie. Therefore, they deserve better packages.

But then, strike in the medical field cannot be justified. This is because at such times, patients are left unattended to. Many people eventually die in the process, while the few lucky ones are made to undergo serious agony.

If teachers can go on strike and deny students of learning, which they can always re-acquire at the end of the strike; if tanker drivers can refuse to supply crude oil which could still be supplied whenever they call off their strike; doctors cannot revive the life of a patient who gave up the ghost during a strike action.

It is in the light of this that a bill that would prohibit health workers from embarking on industrial actions is required. But the bill should be drafted in such a way that it would not deprive the health workers their fundamental rights. While the bill is meant to checkmate the rate of industrial actions in the sector, the welfare and working conditions of the medical workers should be given top priority. In other words, the law forestalling industrial actions in the health sector should not in any way undermine the legitimate demands of health workers.

How our government would achieve this without unnecessarily violating the fundamental rights of both the medical workers and the patients will go a long way in shoring up the image of our country as a progressive nation that cherishes the welfare and lives of its citizenry.

Ikpegbu, a student of Imo State University, Owerri is an intern with The Tide.