Health workers under the aegis of National Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) recently began an indefinite strike reportedly over issues that were crippling medical services in the affected hospitals. As a result of the strike, pharmacists, physiotherapists, medical laboratory scientists, radiographers, dieticians and other health professionals except doctors and nurses are not rendering medical services, leading to the death of several Nigerians.
Among other grievances, the health workers are protesting the general conditions of service, including lack of promotions. They also want their retirement age moved from 60 to 65 years. In their anger, the striking workers have blocked attempts by some doctors to provide skeletal services in some states. At the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Imo State, for instance, a proposal by the Medical Director, Dr. Angela Uwakwem, to initiate a Public- Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement in the institution met with violent resistance from the health workers.
In narrating how health workers in FMC, Owerri, allegedly resorted to violence in the name of demonstration, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute said: “They handed (official) documents to unauthorised persons, hurled pure water sachets and stones at board members while abusing and threatening union members who wanted to go for reconciliatory meetings. They hired thugs to join their daily protests and holding board members hostage for hours. How can they be the complainant, the judge and the executioner? What is the role of the ministry and its management?”
We agree with Awute that health workers cannot take the law into their hands but we are also mindful of the fact that those who bear the pains of the current strike are the poor in our society whose only avenues for healthcare are the public hospitals, as ill-equipped and rickety as most of them are. Therefore, even when we do not want to go into the details of the grievances of the health workers, we urge the health authorities to show more sensitivity to the plight of members of professional associations that provide essential services. Government must not be seen as playing politics with the lives of its citizens.
The striking health workers are insisting that their demands be met before they return to work but unfortunately because we are in a period of transition in which a new government has just taken over, not much attention is being paid to them. While we understand the nature of the season we are in, it remains our expectation that President Muhammadu Buhari must be concerned enough for the life and health of the citizenry and should therefore put in place the mechanism for resolving the crisis.
In the same vein, we consider the actions of the health workers insensitive against the background that their primary objective should be the promotion of the common good. Behaving like touts, as it happened in Owerri, cannot be said to conform to this principal objective. In addition, while it is not wrong for them to put pressure to bear on the government, this must not be done in a way that puts the lives of several Nigerians in danger. What the health workers must understand is that a more strategic way to resolve this logjam can be attained without bringing untold hardship to patients and other citizens that may need their services in the hospitals. Categorically, a new mechanism or dispute resolution platform should be explored.
While we fully support their aspirations in terms of their welfare and conducive working environment, we are of the view that going on strike will not resolve the list of problems confronting Nigeria’s healthcare system at the moment.
