STRIKE OF THE HEALTH WORKERS

Government should please address the issues at stake

For the past two months, healthcare services at government-owned hospitals across the country have continued to witness major disruptions due to an indefinite strike embarked upon by the Joint Health Sector Unions and Assembly of Health Care Professionals (JOHESU) to demand for better welfare packages. While the federal government claims that most of the demands had been addressed, the health workers remain adamant, saying that withholding the immediate adjustment and implementation of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) was the core issue behind the strike. As it is most of our public hospitals have become places of agony and deaths.

We sympathise with health workers who operate under very difficult conditions and serious financial constraints. However, what has become rather worrisome is that strikes have suddenly taken the centre stage of our national life. While refusal to work is universally recognised as a tool available to demand a better work environment or enhancement of wages, the frequency of these strikes in virtually all sectors of the nation’s life is now posing serious threat to our socio-economic development. We therefore urge the federal government to put in place machinery to seriously address all the issues that give rise to these endless strikes, especially in a critical sector like health.

In a country where more than half of the population live in poverty, being able to access healthcare at the public hospitals remains critical, as many cannot afford even the consultation fees in the private hospitals. Instructively, since the current strike commenced on 14 November last year, many of the public hospitals have had to discharge patients for their families to move them ‘elsewhere’. The elsewhere in this instance means private hospitals for those who can afford them, taking the patients home to die for those who cannot, or patronising alternative medicine practitioners. The implications of these are dire. 

While we agree with the right of workers to demand enforcement of better working conditions, we disagree with the penchant for resorting to strikes at the slightest excuse. The unions have lost sympathy of citizens due to the realisation that the strikes are mostly about the ‘welfare’ of their members without a consideration for the plight of patients. Besides, some of the demands of the unions are sometimes unrealistic, like seeking pay parity with doctors, which has been a contentious issue for years. But whatever may be the issues, we hope that the federal government will dialogue with JOHESU that the current strike is counterproductive.

The federal government must also stop the denial that only a few health workers are on strike by quickly resolving contending issues. As previous cases have proven, parties would still return to the negotiating table after several lives have been lost. JOHESU comprises five affiliates: Medical and Health Workers Unions of Nigeria (MHWUN), National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated institutions (SSAUTHRIAM), Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutes (NASU).

 Healthcare delivery is critical to the well-being of any society. But over the years, the attention of government, both at the state and federal levels, is at best half-hearted. These incessant strikes are hugely inimical to the health of the economy and, in many ways, disruptive of the social order. We can only appeal to JOHESU members to consider the interest of their patients.