JOHESU strike: Yobe hospitals opt out

JOHESU strike: Yobe hospitals opt out
By Mohammed Mamman
Strike-3
Damaturu, April 18, 2018 (NAN) Health workers on the payroll of the Yobe Government have opted out of the ongoing nationwide strike called by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU).
The news Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the industrial action, which began on Tuesday midnight, was expected to be spontaneous nationally.
However, members of the union in Yobe shun the directive as the state owned health institutions are providing full services as they did not join the strike.
NAN reports that services are being provided at the State Specialists Hospital and the Yobe Teaching Hospital in Damaturu.,
Mr Abdul-Azeez Usman, the state Chairman of National Association of Nurses and Midwives (NANM), could not be reached for comments as he was said to be in a meeting.
But the strike had paralysed normal services at the Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, Yobe, which is the only federal health institution in state.
A senior staff of the hospital told NAN on condition of anonymity that the hospital was providing skeletal services as the strike commenced.
The source said: “We are hopeful that the strike will not be prolonged and the union will soon call off the strike for normal services to resume.”
The source cautioned that if the strike was prolonged, patients on admission and out-patients would be at the receiving end and called for quick resolution of the dispute.
Some patients who spoke to NAN appealed to the health workers to suspend the strike so as not to compound the problems faced by ordinary citizens.
Malam Ali Sani, a patient, said the effect of the strike would only be on the less privileged as “the well to do will go to private clinics to access medicare”.
From Plateau, a report said the strike was effective at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) forcing management staff and medical doctors to offer skeletal services.
Prof. Edmond Banwat, the Chief Medical Director of JUTH, confirmed the development to NAN on Wednesday in Jos.
Banwat disclosed that all Heads of Departments had been asked to work out plans on how the hospital could offer some clinical services and handle emergency cases.
“JUTH will offer some clinical services and handle emergency cases, as the doctors are not on strike, but our services will not be optimal,’’ he said.
‎Mr Obisesan Oluwatuyi, General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) and a member of the leadership of JOHESU, who was at the hospital to ensure strict compliance, said that the strike was necessitated following alleged Federal Government failure to meet their demands.
He said that government signed an agreement with JOHESU in September 2017, regretting that six months after signing the agreement, nothing has been done.
He lamented that ‎the lukewarm attitude of the current administration in charge of the Federal Ministry of Health which has been promoting only the welfare of doctors as against the general health workforce.
“The Federal Ministry of Health and the Minister of Health has not been fair to us as a group that is why you will continue to see this, until the needful is done.
“For an effective health work force, ‎every stakeholder must be taken into consideration,” he said.
He listed ‎their demands yet to be met by the federal government to include an upward adjustment of CONHESS Salary Scale, arrears of skipping of CONHESS 10.
Other demands include employment of additional health professionals, the implementation of court judgments and an upward review of retirement age from 60 to 65 years. (NAN)
MM/UBO/OIF/MST
Edited by Ifeyinwa Okonkwo/Muhammad Suleiman Tola