The swift (but temporarily) resolution of the longdrawn industrial crisis that grounded activities at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State, following the intervention of the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, amply demonstrated the inherent gains in the change of leadership and injection of new blood into a crumbling system. As at the middle of September this year, for instance, UNTH doctors were on strike, and had vowed to continue their stay at home.
A communiqué issued in Ibadan by the UNTH President and General Secretary of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Dr. Ugwuoke Aloy Ifedinso and Dr. Ndiokwelu Chibuzo, respectively, at the time stated: “The management has done nothing different from the state of things before the strike commenced”. Their complaints centred on some unpaid salaries and allowances; as well as the general rot in the hospital. They also advised UNTH management to liaise with their colleagues in other Federal teaching hospitals in the country to know how they handled such challenges in the best interest of the hospital’s numerous patients and industrial harmony.
Towards the end of October, the ARD, UNTH chapter, again reiterated the position and renewed its demands. The association did not just dwell on unpaid salaries and allowances this time, but enumerated the rot dogging the hospital; and called for the immediate removal of its Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr. Christopher Amah. The group said: “We have decided to embark on an indefinite strike over the entire failure in the system. The aims for which this tertiary hospital was established, which are service, research and training, have failed totally. UNTH being on strike is better. The hospital has been turned to a money-collecting centre, where patients are made to pay for oxygen when they did not use same. In times of emergency, common investigations like HB, CT scan and blood bank tests cannot be done in the hospital. Patients are made to travel 20 km to private hospitals in the metropolis (Enugu) to do these tests, which compounds a simple ailment to a complex one… patients die as a result. We carry out surgeries with torch and candle lights following power failure and dysfunctional generators. It is only the poorest of the poor that comes to UNTH as a last resort”.
However, respite came the way of the hospital, its embattled management and patients less than a week after the new Health Minister resumed work; and the industrial action was suspended. Another communiqué jointly signed by the national leadership of ARD subsequently said: “The Hon. Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, has in a meeting with the President of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Kayode Obembe; and President of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr. Muhammed Askira, expressed his determination to look into and solve the problems of the Nigerian health sector, with particular interest in UNTH, being the only federal teaching hospital currently experiencing industrial disharmony. That the Minister in the meeting made passionate appeal that we restore services in UNTH, while he wades fully into our demands, assuring that he will do all within his powers to see that our demands are given the necessary and deserved attention.
“Though the UNTH management has acknowledged the genuineness of our demands, the major reason why the strike has been sustained till now is because we have not seen appreciable intervention in the area of improving services offered and patient care… After painstaking deliberations, members unanimously resolved that in honour of the Minister; and in obedience to the directives of the President of our national body, Dr. Askira, who has also shown enormous support in the struggles of ARD, UNTH chapter, members have resolved to suspend the present industrial action with effect from 8am, Monday, November 16, 2015”.
It is a welcome relief that the strike has been called off, but the obvious is that the breather was in deference to the new helmsman now manning the Federal Ministry of Health Adewole. Therefore, the industrial peace is temporary and fragile. Consequently, lasting peace between the ARD in UNTH and the hospital management may only be guaranteed by sorting out the knotty issues that led to the strike as quickly as possible, while the romance between the ARD and the Health Minister lasts. In no time, the doctors may run out of patience and return to the trenches. We advise the minister to act fast and demystify the circumstances that made UNTH ‘the only federal teaching hospital currently experiencing industrial disharmony’, with a view to eventually addressing and resolving the problems.
