Crisis looms in Nigeria hospitals as health workers announce indefinite strike

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Doctors attending to patients at National Hospital

The Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, has announced an indefinite strike that, it says, will paralyse activities in all health institutions across the country.


“All federal government health institutions in Nigeria including federal medical centres, specialists’ hospitals, orthopedic hospitals, psychiatric hospitals among others will be the first to shut down. If the government allows the strike to continue after two weeks, all the states and local government health institutions will now join,” the National Vice Chairman of JOHESU, Ogbonna Chimela, told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday.

The members of JOHESU are hospital workers, including nurses and pharmacists, but excluding medical doctors and dentists.

Mr Chimela said the strike will commence from midnight on Tuesday.

JOHESU embarked on a nationwide strike last September to protest among other issues, salary adjustments, promotion arrears, and improved work environment for its members.

On the 9th day of the strike, JOHESU struck a deal with government.

According to the union, six months after the deal was struck, the government is yet to meet any of its demands.

Last month, the union further gave the government a 30 days ultimatum.

“Before now we gave the government 21 working days as an ultimatum. Last month, we also threatened to go on strike after 30 working days which will expire tomorrow (Tuesday) and government have not really done anything tangible.

“They only invited us on the 5th of April told us that our issues are being looked into as usual without any concrete effort on how they are planning to meet our demand. So our National Executive Council (NEC) met in Abuja and appraised the situation and we resolved to continue with the strike, no going back”, the union leader said.

He said the agreement the union had with the government on September 30, 2017 was that their demands would be met in five weeks.

“That five weeks has metamorphosed to six months and still counting,” the official said.

He also spoke on the potential impact of the strike on patients.

“We know this strike will affect the masses and we are compassionate about the people; that was why we gave enough time for the government to do the needful. But the only thing government seems to respect is strike.

“The labor law gives us that opportunity that if our employer is not showing interest in our matter, we can withdraw our services through strike and we had followed all the due processes before arriving to this decision.”

When contacted, the health minister, Isaac Adewole, said the government is working to avert the strike.

“We are reaching out to abort the strike. Almost all demands have been met. Government is looking into remaining issues to address them comprehensively,” he said.

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