LAGOS— AS the nationwide doctors’ strike
continues to take its toll on healthcare
services in public hospitals, the
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, has
commended the Joint Health Sector Unions,
JOHESU, and the Assembly of Health
Professional Associations for dragging the
Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, and its
affiliates to court over the crisis in the health
sector.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigeria
Nurses and Midwives, NANNM, and the
Nigerian Society of Physiotherapists have
urged the striking doctors to return to work,
just as doctors under the aegis of National
Association General Medicine and Dental
Practitioners, NAGMDP, Anambra State
chapter, have commended efforts by Governor
Willie Obiano to tackle the problems in the
health sector in the state.
In a statement, weekend, President of the PSN,
Mr Olumide Akintayo, said the NMA had
perennially constituted itself into the law by
declaring frequent unlawful strikes through
which it illegitimately negotiates favourable
conditions of service for its members while at
the same time dictating what other health
workers can earn.
Akintayo said: “For years on end we at PSN
have always insisted that the NMA, National
Association of Resident Doctors and Medical
and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria
and other appendages are not trade unions
and so cannot legally be said to have a locus
standi in trade disputes.
“It is our strong affirmation that the JOHESU
vs NMA matter at the National Industrial
Court of Nigeria, NICN, has all the propensities
to fundamentally resolve once and for all, so
many contentious issues which have ravaged
the health sector albeit retrogressively once
and for all.”
It’s selfish, unethical, illegal —Nurses
In a related development, the National
Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives
has described the current strike action by the
NMA as “selfish, unethical and illegal.”
NANNM, in a statement signed by its General
Secretary, Yusuf-Badmus, advised the Federal
Government to “stop all government employed
doctors from establishing private clinics for
the benefit of the citizens of this nation while
still in government employment.”
The group advocated that all government
health workers should ”have a unified salary
scale to check and prevent unhealthy rivalry
and end to the incessant strike action, that
leaves the innocent patient to suffer.”
Also, the Nigerian Society of Physiotherapists
urged the NMA to end the on-going strike and
save lives of millions who have no means to
fly abroad for medical treatment.
President of the Society, Mr. Taiwo Oyewumi,
stated that the NMA should rescind its
decision and listen to voice of reason as it
concerns life.
Anambra doctors
laud Obiano
Meanwhile, doctors in Anambra State, under
the aegis of NAGMDP, have given Governor
Willie Obiano a pat on the back for efforts to
tackle the problems in the health sector in the
state, as contained in his blueprint.
State Chairman, NAGMDP, Dr. Joe Uyamadu,
who disclosed this to newsmen in Onitsha,
said Obiano’s blueprint was similar to their
six-point demand that led to strike during
former Governor Peter Obi’s regime, adding
that with the way he is pursuing the blueprint
vigorously, they would no longer contemplate
going on strike in the state.
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