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Resident doctors in
the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) resumed duties
today after calling off a one week strike action yesterday.

The Lagos branch of
the Association of Resident Doctors (LASUTH-ARD) called of the strike
after a meeting it held at the hospital premises on Wednesday. The
strike, which lasted seven days, was observed to press for the payment
of the deducted 12 days’ pay from their salaries by the state
government, for participating in a nationwide strike called by the
National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) in April.

”We have just
called off the strike, so we will resume work 8 am tomorrow morning;
they (state government) have answered us,” said the association
president, Saliu Oseni, who described the state government’s action as
an insult to the medical profession. Dr. Oseni also said the
association had forwarded a memo stating its other demands to the state
government for consideration, prominent among which is the
implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Scale (CONMESS), an
improved salary structure.

Getting back to business

The withholding of
the salaries to punish the doctors had, however, met with criticisms
from some quarters, including the Democratic Peoples’ Alliance (DPA),
an opposition party, and NARD, which have pushed for the immediate
payment of the deducted salary.

In its protest, the
NARD gave the Lagos state government seven days to pay the deducted
money, threatening a nationwide strike of resident doctors if the
demand was not met by then; the ultimatum expired yesterday.

While the strike
lasted, various wards of the hospital were empty, except for the
emergency ward, where consultants were on hand to attend to the
patients. With the return of the doctors, patients will be relieved of
their suffering.

A patient, Kabiru
Mohammed described the news of the doctor’s strike call-off as “a
welcome development.” “I think it’s a good thing that both of them have
resolved their issues, because it’s we people that will suffer, not the
doctors, not the government,” he said.