The health workers under the auspices of Joint House Unions and the Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, LUTH branch, held a peaceful protest at the hospital premises today.
According to them, they are protesting mismanagement of the hospital facilities. Chairman Trade Union Congress Lagos chapter, Comrade Ogunremi Francis, said; “the protest is aimed at telling the LUTH Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Chris Bode, that we don’t like the way he is running the hospital and how he is treating the workers. He is harassing the labour leaders. The position he is occupying is illegal according to Nigeria’s constitution, if you work for 35 years or you’re 60 years you should retire, and he is over 60 years”.
Comrade Ogunremi also claim that the CMD deducts union members’ salary but never remits it to the union.
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Lagos Chairman, Dr. Omojowolo, also collaborated his words. He said, “The union have to come together because of lots of problem at the hospital. The CMD suspends doctors and staff at any time, doctors are not paid full salary, doctors welfare are not given to them, there is no material to work with at the hospital, and no bed space at the emergency ward. Some facilities like ultrasound scan, ICU, basic consumables are always lacking”.
He said it is normal to see people outside the emergency wars, these are people that cannot afford the spill over cost of N50,000.
Reacting to this claims during a phone interview, the CMD said the protest is caused by some people who are being disciplined.
“If some people are on discipline, the hospital will not shut down because of that. You can see that all our activities are running. They are not happy because nobody is joining them unlike before. Now they don’t have the power to cause strike action. Over 500 patients are currently on admission at the hospital and about 5000 are being attended to. We are here to serve Nigeria and we are serving Nigeria very well,” he said.
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