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The joy of motherhood was short-lived
for Sola Morufu, who lost her child barely 24 hours after its delivery.
Three months of strike by Lagos doctors has grounded activities in
state-owned hospitals, and made Mrs. Morufu’s child a casualty.

After putting to bed at a local
maternity centre at Orimedu in Ibeju-Lekki council three months ago,
Mrs. Morufu left for Akodo, a neighbouring community, in the same
council, to stay with her mother.

Counting costs in human lives

“It was on the second day that the
child started acting somehow and started shaking, so we took her to
Ibeju-Lekki General Hospital in Akodo here, but we were rejected
because of the strike,” said the grandmother of the deceased, Joke Olu.

“It was already around 9pm and by the
time we would get to another hospital, the child had died. Me and my
daughter, we cried like a baby that night, but there was nothing we
could do about it. I felt like it was a grown up that died.”

Along with losing her first child,
22-year-old Mrs. Morufu’s life was gravely threatened, prompting her to
seek medical attention in a nearby private hospital.

“The baby was also my first
grandchild, but it was really tough for his mother after then,” said
Mrs. Olu, the grandmother. “We almost lost her too, and eventually had
to get her to a private hospital in Magbon-Segun (a neighbouring
community) where she received treatment at double what we would have
spent in a public hospital. Only God saved her life, but she has still
not fully recovered now. She really feels bad about what happened and
has not been happy since then.”

Like Mrs. Olu, Abanise Wasiu, another
resident of Akodo community, lost his uncle, Sulu Eji, five weeks ago,
an incident he believes was caused by the doctors’ strike.

He said the delay in getting timely
medical treatment for his uncle, who had slumped at a community
meeting, had cost him his life, in spite of frantic efforts made by the
relatives.

“We quickly rushed him to Ibeju-Lekki
General Hospital after he slumped, but he was still shaking. On getting
there, the doctors were still on strike. He died on the way to a
private hospital in Iberikodo (a nearby community),” he said.

Two female doctors at Ibeju-Lekki
General Hospital, who spoke under condition of anonymity, denied that
patients had been outrightly rejected at the hospital.

“Even though we are on strike, we still try to do something for them (patients), however, small,” said one of the doctors.

Resort to alternative medicine

As the impact of the strike bites
harder, with its effects on residents some of who could only manage to
get private health-care, which is relatively more expensive,
investigation has shown that many Lagos residents have resorted to
patronising hawkers of alternative (traditional) medicine, whose
activities are less regulated.

Bidemi Salako, who is registered for
anti-natal care at the Island Maternity, Lagos Island, has been getting
her care from herbalists, popularly called ‘Alagbos’ in Lagos, since
the commencement of the doctors’ strike.

“There was nothing else I could do,”
she said in Yoruba. “I was having back pains, headache and various
other complaints, but there was no doctor to complain to at the
hospital, so I told the herbalist about it, and she has been treating
me since then. I pray they call off before my time to give birth, but
if not, I will use the herbalist,” she said.

In the meantime, the 13-week-old
strike continues, with the doctors rejecting the state government’s
offer of 75 per cent implementation of CONMESS (Consolidated Medical
Salary Scale), and accusing the government of insincerity in
negotiations which started last week, about three months into the
strike.

Speaking recently in an interview with
NEXT, Ayobode Williams, Medical Guild chairman, appealed to Lagos re
sidents “to prevail on the government to acce de to the doctors’
demands”, adding that the state government should be held responsible
for th e casualties recorded during the strike.