Indefinite shutdown

The Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, has not been functioning for about two months due to a crisis over remuneration. AUSTIN EBIPADE reports that the personnel in the hospital have vowed that things may not get better unless the Federal government does the needful.

THE Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State is an expansive complex and used to be a hive of sort, but today, it is a shadow of itself. A strike had been embarked on since November 15, 2016 by doctors in the hospital under the auspices of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD). They had pronounced an indefinite strike to protest non-payment of their salaries. The bone contention was that the hospital owed its workforce a backlog of 52 per cent short payment arrears for four months. The resident doctors were particularly miffed that the hospital management decided to withhold their salaries without explanation.

During a visit by Sunday Tribune to the hospital, some of the resident doctors were seen within the hospital premises, but they were not attending to patients, not even those in the emergency wards.

At the height of the 2 month old strike, the leadership of the ARD visibly turned back nurses and other health professionals in the hospital who were yet to join the strike.

They also ensured that some patients were discharged because no medical assistance was going to be rendered. Relations of patients who could not leave on their own were asked to come for them.

A patient, Mr Bozimor Oduku, who was abruptly discharged due to the strike, expressed sadness and frustration over the situation, lamenting that he could not afford the exorbitant medical bills at private hospitals in Yenagoa.

With tears in her eyes, Mrs Ebidoumo Selepre, another patient, said before coming for treatment at the hospital, she had visited many private hospitals but could not afford the cost of medical treatment.

“They advised me to come here and I found the fees very affordable, except for the high cost of drugs due to the foreign exchange problems.

“I came here for succour, but they have come to ask us to pack and go home.  Where do I go from here? Is it to go home and die? My condition is deteriorating fast. I just don’t know what to do,” she told Sunday Tribune.

A nurse at the hospital, Mrs. Chinyere Okpu, expressed sadness over the non-payment of three months’ salary and short payment for four months for doctors and other medical and non-medical staff of the hospital. She told Sunday Tribune that other members of staff of the hospital resolved to join the indefinite strike action embarked by doctors of the hospital if the outstanding salaries were not paid by the end of November last year. It never happened. Thus the sympathy strike by other personnel had crippled the entire hospital complex.

The hospital’s branch chairman of Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Keme Pondei, regretted that the strike was taking place at a time of economic hardship, and that most patients who had took solace in the relatively affordable medical services at the hospital were now on the receiving end as health care services in the country had become a luxury.

He said further that the doctors in the hospital had no option than to withdraw their services as their patience had been exhausted. He enjoined the general public to bear with the doctors as they could not render services on an empty stomach.

The ARD president in the hospital, Dr. Okoye Chukwunonso, said doctors would not contemplate shifting grounds till their salaries were paid for in full. He said that if the management maintained its stand not to initiate talks to resolve the industrial dispute, doctors would remain at home indefinitely and would not be in a hurry to resume.

The chairman of the hospital’s branch of National Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), Mr. Oginike Lante, said the situation was unbearable and, as such, members of the union went on strike since the end of November 2016.

He pointed out that salary arrears and outstanding shortfalls cut across all departments of the hospital, thus his union joined the strike.

When contacted, the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Dr Dennis Alagoa, said that he was out of town and could not immediately speak on the development. However, the Director of Administration of the FMC, Mr. Inibaraye Ogoro, on behalf of the CMD, said that management had been making frantic efforts to resolve the industrial dispute with resident doctors.

He noted that management was in talks with the federal government to end the strike and prevent other staffers from joining the action, and doing all it could to meet their demands.

The Head of Clinical Services, Dr Preye Numbere, said the strike involves only resident doctors and that the hospital is still rendering health services.

He regretted the harrowing experience of resident doctors and other health workers over the salary debacle, but that consultants were making concerted efforts to fill the gap.

Numbere added that health service would remain at the low ebb until management paid the striking doctors.

The NARD Public Relations Officer, Dr Ugoeze Asinobi, told Sunday Tribune that the doctors had shelved the planned strike three times in the past four months but are now bent on pressing home their demand for improved welfare.

“We don’t want strike. The residency programme is fundamental to effective health care given the dearth  of manpower as the country has fewer than 20 per cent of required experts.

“Each time the ultimatum expired, we shifted it in the hope that things would be made right within the time given, but it is now obvious the ministry officials were insincere.

“The issues we go on strike for are always the same and we are resolute if our concerns are not addressed.”

Asinobi said that NARD frowned on the wastage in building new primary health centres rather than rehabilitating, equipping and staffing existing ones with requisite manpower.

The NARD spokesman explained that resident doctors had always embraced dialogue and discussions in finding lasting solution but regretted that their commitment to peace and industrial harmony had yet to be reciprocated.