Amalgamation Day in Lagos, 1914

Amalgamation Day in Lagos, 1914

03 March, 2011

Doctors on Strike

Do something for me. Read this article. Think about it.

Now answer a question for me.

Why do doctors and nurses in Nigeria go on strike?

A commenter on another website had this to say:
Cause and effect. The strike is the effect. We should be looking at causes. Govts shouldn’t be creating conditions that force doctors to go on strike.

It is easy to say they should be on a higher moral plane, but being on a higher moral plane does not mean they should allow a criminal govt to continue shafting them. If you are a doctor in Naija, you would have seen way too many people die from criminal negligence by the govt, from inadequate equipment to NEPA doing their thing during surgery, to babies in incubators dying when there is a power failure, etc. Being a doctor required to work in terrible conditions can make you immune to the suffering of your patients.

A second commenter concurred with him:

Boy, until you enter the 'situation' yourself, its kind of easy to talk. I am against doctors striking myself, but don't forget that doctors too are victims of a negligent government. A doctor that hasn't been paid for six months is equally in danger of his own sick child or pregnant wife dying needlessly from poor facilities.

Moreover doctor's strikes have often been less about salaries and more about inadequate or non-existent facilities.

As a doctor, how many times for instance can you use your personal money to buy drugs or drips or needles for a patient you know is sure to die if you don't? These things happen regularly, nobody hears about them but everyone hears about the strikes.

I have my own personal stories from when I was a rookie doctor in Naija

That is certainly one way to look at it .... a way of looking at it that does not, cannot, will not comfort those who have watched members of their families die while doctors and nurses are striking.

What makes it so much worse is their going on strike achieves NOTHING.

I am not old, but I am not young, and I have seen so many of these medical strikes come and go .... and all I have to say about the success-rate of these strikes is the current strikes are about the same issues that were not resolved by the previous strikers! These issues will not be resolved by the current strikes either. And so long as Nigeria remains politically, fundamentally, structurally, systemically, economically, societally and institutionally the same as it is now, future strikes will be just as useless in resolving these issues.

Look, either a person or group takes firm (dare I say "revolutionary") action to change the political, fundamental, structural, systemic, economic, societal and institutional nature of the Federal Republic of Nigeria .... or they should stop wasting our time (and our lives)!

These doctors and their strikes have NO EFFECT on the basic, core nature of the way things are. Supposedly, 2011 is an election year, but health care (or the lack thereof) will play no role whatsoever in deciding which of the politicians occupy the Presidency, National Assembly, State Assembly, Governorships, etc .... and will play little or no role in what policy decisions these politicians make when they are in office. After we have wasted so much money and time on the charade, the countdown will begin till the next doctors and nurses strike.

PS: Yes, I saw the part of the article where it said a woman in critical need of emergency medical care was turned away because her husband didn't have =N=150,000.00 to pay for a Caesarean section. Unfortunately, this is also "normal" in Nigeria. I saw it upfront and personally decades ago when I broke my arm as a child. I have never forgotten it. I will never forget it.

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