•Hospital deserted
THE Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) was deserted yesterday as its nurses refused to call off the strike they embarked on since June 10.
Few patients that came into the hospital were either for medical/clinical diagnostic services or ignorant that nurses were on strike in the 54-year-old tertiary institution.
Aside Wards E8 and C7 that are run on Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) and the Linear Accelerator Centre, the Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, where cancer patients are being attended to, the entire hospital cut the picture of a ghost town.
Security operatives manned entrances to the hospital wards, which were in darkness.
The Nation witnessed a patient, who was brought to the Accident and Emergency unit, but could not be admitted.
The medics told the relatives that they have the option of the Spillover Ward, which is a PPP, because no admission could be taken into the general ward, as a result of the nurses’ strike.
They advised the relatives to opt for private hospitals or a state tertiary hospital.
The Nation gathered that the LUTH management and the Lagos State body of the Nigerian Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) that called the strike on behalf of the nurses were yet to have any meeting to resolve the impasse because the state NANNM executives have their week fully booked with meetings with other units under the association’s umbrella.
“The LUTH NANNM executives have scheduled a meeting with the striking nurses for today by 10:30am to brief and diffuse the “propaganda being circulated by the LUTH management to the media,” stated the association’s LUTH chairperson, Mrs. Yemisi Adelaja.
Saying nurses were dedicated and hardworking, Mrs. Adelaja added: “But the management is not addressing the issues raised by the state chapter of NANNM on behalf of its members at LUTH, and LUTH management is asking us the unit chapter to hold a meeting with it. That is not possible.
“It is the state NANNM, under the directive of the national executives that called the strike. So, it is the excos of the state that can hold the meeting with the management.
“Many issues such as lack of power and under-staffing of nursing unit are just not being addressed for instance, yet the LUTH management is putting forward media releases twisting the facts.”
In its reaction, Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, LUTH, Prof Olufemi Fasanmade, said nurses at the hospital embarked on the industrial action five weeks ago, bringing to a standstill almost all activities at the tertiary healthcare institution.
“Abruptly, over 550 ill Nigerians were abandoned to their fates on hospital beds, with many seeking quick and unplanned discharge to private hospitals they could ill afford. Part of the issues raised is non-payment of teaching allowance to LUTH nurses.
“Sometime last year, the Abuja office of the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) stopped the payment of teaching allowance nationwide because it was alleged many persons (not only nurses), who did not qualify, were benefiting from the allowance. Series of complaints were made to LUTH management about the stoppage and a fresh list of eligible LUTH workers was submitted and followed up at the IPPIS office. The IPPIS office had promised to re-commence the payment of this allowance to the affected workers, even before the ongoing strike and this was made known to the nurses’ union. The payment has since been paid along with June 2016 salaries.
“It should be pointed out yet again that the complaint was misdirected at LUTH management as LUTH does not pay nurses’ salaries and allowances. The IPPIS platform does. LUTH does not interfere in the monthly payment of salaries on the IPPIS platform, which requires no authorisation from Lagos before payment is made directly from the CBN to each person’s bank account.
“It is therefore wrong to stick the blame on LUTH.”
LUTH management did not stop the payment of teaching allowance. The IPPIS platform did so from Abuja,” he explained.
Prof. Fasanmade said other complaints include power and water supply.
“The reality, to quote from a recent article is as follows. ‘Nigeria presently generates less than two per cent of the 140,000 megawatts of electricity required to make us self-sufficient in electricity. In the month of April 2016, LUTH received a total power supply of 11.2 days, representing 36.6 per cent of our monthly requirement. In May, we got only six days of electricity from the national grid, representing 20 per cent of our monthly round-the-clock need for our priority status. Most of this paltry supply comes at odd hours that challenge any meaningful planning of scheduled procedures and manpower deployment, making us rely unduly on over-flogged and aged generators. Diesel suppliers would rather sell on a cash-and-carry basis because it is a sellers’ market.
“All these, therefore, have compelled LUTH (and most public hospitals) to restrict uninterrupted power supply to only critical areas such as Operation Suites, the Intensive Care Units, Labour Wards, Neonatal Units, the Mortuary, Blood Bank, the IVF Centre, the Private Wings, water supply and some critical laboratories. Other less critical areas have had to bear with the reality of load shedding and intermittent power rationing to prevent overused generators form packing up altogether, especially in the face of depleted internally generated revenues.”
He added: “The truth therefore is that the LUTH too experiences power outages. Everyone and every home in Nigeria do. However, this has not deterred us from performing our duties to the best of our abilities in these tough times.”
The CMAC said the strike has cost the hospital a lot.
“The nation has lost untold number of lives, who could have been saved if our hospital had remained opened. As of the last count, seven members of staff or their immediate family members have had to seek emergency treatment from our Emergency Services alone. Four of these were nurses. Many more still attend the outpatient departments for direly needed treatments while we deny the public of these same services. It is said that when you throw a stone into the market place, invariably, someone from your own compound will get bruised. Lesson? Don’t throw stones.
“Also, the hospital has lost millions in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) . With this present government’s firm stand on the strict implementation of the No-Work-No-Pay policy, many of us may lose much more to unearned pay simply because we sympathise with a group of persons whose case is already receiving attention at the ministry. Training of medical students, postgraduate doctors, student nurses, post basic nurses and many other cadres is at a standstill, held to ransom by this industrial action. Commitments to various international training partners suffer while our institution is on strike, eroding the advantage our institution has over many others in matters of training. The profession’s integrity and the hospital’s brand are at stake.”
Fasanmade said: “It is therefore imperative to implore all concerned to eschew strike actions as a means of conflict resolution.”
