by Lekan Olanrewaju
Governor Fashola is clearly not one to bluff. Just a few days after expressing his displeasure at the current strike action being undertaken by doctors in Lagos state, he has made good on his threat to sack those involved.
Doctors in the state under the aegis of the Medical Guild had embarked on an indefinite strike to demand the implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS. The government, however, refused to give in to their demands, with the governor stating that the whole ordeal was “very painful” for him, and going on to threaten to fire the striking doctors.
The state government has wasted no time in putting those words into action, as the doctors have now been served with dismissal letters.
The letters were dated Friday, May 4, 2012 and signed by the Chief Medical Director of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Professor David Oke.
“The committee therefore recommend your dismissal from service in accordance with the provisions of the civil service rule No 04502, 04507 and 04508.” reads an excerpt. “The board has therefore approved your dismissal.”
“Therefore you are to convey the possession of the properties of the state government in your custody to the Chief Medical Director CMD.”
This, according to the Chairman of the Lagos chapter of the NMA, Dr Edamisan Temiye, is due to the fact a negotiating team has been set up to find a solution to the problems as soon as possible.
“We wish the team concludes negotiations within the shortest possible time so that doctors can go back to their duty posts,” he said.
For your information; Issues
concerning the Nigerian Medical
Association,Medical guild of Lagos.
The consolidated medical salary scale
is the salary structure designed by the
federal government 4years ago with the aim of providing a uniform salary
scale for doctors irrespective of the
state,kind of hospital,and
specialisation. With an annual
increment denoting years of
experience. Most states in the country immediately
began paying conmess in full.
2years after this,the medical guild
wrote several letters to the government
to remind them of conmess as they
were yet to be paid. The governor then SIGNED an agreement that he would
commence payment in 2011 with
arrears being owed.
The federal government made it clear
that if conmess is paid, Doctors would
ignore the poor work conditions,work extended hours like they have been
but this time they would be happy
doing it, they wouldn't have to leave
the country to work abroad, more
people would be encouraged to train
as doctors and the health of the people would be secured.
Tax was increased, conmess was not
paid, work conditions were not
improved, doctor's lives were lost to
stress related illnesses. Call rooms
were not provided for doctors on call. When Mr Fashola was reminded in
January,he simply said the President
couldn't dictate how much he would
pay doctors in his state,and the tax
increase was necessary so we can get
used to it INCASE he agrees to implement conmess! He said he
couldn't afford to pay conmess(but
could plan the most expensive
birthday party in the World for Mr
Tinubu)
We then embarked on a legal 3day warning strike with prior notice to
sensitize the people and remind the
government of the signed agreement
On resumption,all doctors were given
individual query letters(for a joint
action?). Another one was issued,then letters were issued for "call to panel /
impending dismissal from duty". A
week later, armour tanks were brought
to all lagos general hospitals and
teaching hospital Lasuth ikeja,with
doctors walked out of their clinics while seeing patients. The Med guild
immediately called for an indefinite
strike and the lagos state government
sued for breech of agreement and
Victimisation of doctors.
Fake pay slips were published in the papers 2weeks ago claiming doctors
were being paid as much as 900,000
whereas a medical professor of
20years has never been paid as much
as 500,000.
A Neurosurgeon(brain surgeon) consultant still collects 171,000 as
salary. Be informed we have only less
dan 20 in Nigeria(2of them with lagos
state,they trained in America,they have
both been sacked!).They work round
the clock(we have enough head injuries daily due to road traffic
accidents).
3days ago,we were issued sack letters
and 97 doctors(not 373 like u heard)
were employed as locum doctors
(doctors paid per hour). These locum doctors need residents and
consultants to put them through.
It takes years of experience to perform
a caesarian section on a woman or a
brain surgery(esp bore hole to relieve
increased brain pressure or blood in d brain) or an appendectomy or treat a
sick child or even to help a mentally ill
patient.
NMA has made it clear that the newly
appointed doctors should not & would
not accept the job offer,and that all doctors across the nation would join in
the strike against victimization on friday
after the on going professional exams.
The issue is now beyond CONMESS
struggle – the government is aiming to
devour the medical and dental profession.
Be informed that doctors are not
slaves,our Hippocratic oath explains
that we owe an obligation to our
patients and they owe an obligation to
us and our services must be paid for. Thanks for taking time to read this. I
hope you have been well informed. Dr
Biggie Adeyemi
Why did the governor fail to honour the agreement signed with doctors in 2009 during his first term? The salary structure in contention is what their colleagues elsewhere have been enjoying for some years now. Now resorting to propaganda.
Oh wait, this is his second term and he couldn't care less.