Lagos Doctors Kick Against Non-Payment Of Salary

Doctors under the aegis of the Medical Guild
staged a protest at the Lagos State University
Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, over the non-payment
of their August and September salaries.
The doctors, who were seen carrying placards

around LASUTH on Friday are also protesting
non-employment of resident doctors by the

hospitals’ management, casualisation and
victimisation of doctors.
The Chairman of the guild, Dr. Biyi Kufo,
appealed to the state government to accede to
the demands of the doctors in order to prevent
another round of strike in the state.
He said, “We want the government to pay those
withheld salaries of August and September 2014,
to stop employing doctors as casual workers,
which they have been doing since 2012.
“These doctors on contract employment have no
career path, they can be dismissed at the
slightest notice and we want them to resume
training of specialists at LASUTH.
“They are no longer employing doctors for
specialist training and given a few years, there
will no longer be specialists to render services to
Lagosians.
“The government continues to victimise doctors
and we want them to stop, “ he added.
The chairman noted that the protest was held to
bring to the notice of the public the various acts
of victimisation and intimidation against doctors
under the employ of the state government.
He said, “When we go on strike, the people who
suffer are the public and that is the reason we
are bringing this protest to the public space.
“We did this in the hope that, perhaps this time,
things will change, “he added.
The Vice Chairman of the guild, Dr. Oseni Saliu,
also said that doctors would continue to fight for
their rights and urged the public to appeal to the
government in order to avoid further crisis.
He said, “We are ready to render services to our
people and we are not ready for anybody to
subjugate us and we will always fight for our
rights.
“If the government continues to push us and if
there is need for action, we will take the action.”
The President, Association of Resident Doctors,
LASUTH chapter, Dr. Abdusalam Moruf, said that
there had been no residency training programme
at the hospital since 2011.
He said, “ LASUTH has been turned into a
general hospital because residents are not being
employed and as such no one is graduating to
become consultants.
“There are very few specialists to attend to
cases such as hypertension, diabetes, stroke and
some complex surgeries because teaching
hospitals are not training enough. Such cases
will have to be treated outside the country.”
The president urged the government to employ
more resident doctors to address the imminent
shortage of experts.
All attempt to speak with the Chief Medical
Director of LASUTH, Prof. Wale Oke, proved
abortive as our correspondent was told he was
on his annual leave.

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