Strike cripples Kaduna health services

Recently, health workers in Kaduna State embarked on an indefinite strike to demand better welfare, GODWIN ISENYO reports

Mama Monday, as she is fondly called by admirers and customers alike, is a petty trader at the Gwamna Awan General Hospital, located at Nasarawa, Kaduna South Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

When the hospital was fully functional, her business boomed as she always smiled home with enough to support her family with the profit from sales at the hospital. This was a major reason she said she couldn’t afford to go home early at such times, because she would have to attend to the numerous patients, nurses, doctors, other health workers and visitors to the hospital who regularly bought goods from her.

However, the scenario has changed. As early as 2pm when this reporter visited the hospital on Wednesday, Monday was already packing her wares to leave for the day. “No work since Friday,” she said, referring to the indefinite strike embarked upon by health workers in the state. Her business is the least affected.

Mrs. Gladys Akpo, who had an appointment with a doctor at the same hospital, was more disappointed as she narrated her woes. Akpo has a lymphoma on her shoulder which needed an urgent operation. “I was here (at the hospital) last Thursday, the day I was given an appointment for an operation on the affected part, but sadly, it appears nobody is on ground to carry out the operation,” she told our correspondent.

Akpo said she had no choice than to go to a private  clinic to have the lymphoma removed. She was one among hundreds of patients that are adversely hit by the on-going strike action embarked upon by health workers in the state.

The Records Department and the Outpatient Department that usually witnessed heavy human traffic on a daily basis were deserted. Except for the private security guards that mounted the main gate to the hospital, the expansive compound that housed the Gwamna Awan Hospital was completely empty.

It was the same scenario in the other three government owned-hospitals in the state: Yusuf Dantsoho General Hospital, Tudun-Wada; Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital in the heart of the metropolis; and the Gambo Sawaba General Hospital, Zaria.

Health workers in the state under the auspices of Joint Health Sector Associations/Unions withdrew their services penultimate Thursday, after the expiration of a 21-day ultimatum handed down to the state government to address the plight of the workers. The demands of the workers include the implementation of the balance of the 30 per cent Consolidated Health Salary Structure promised by the administration of the late Patrick Yakowa.

The health workers said the current administration of Governor Mukhtar Yero reneged on its promised soon after the death of Yakowa in a helicopter crash on December 15, 2012, in Bayelsa State.

According to the JOHESU Chairman, Mrs. Cecilia Musa, this development forced the body to embark on an indefinite strike. She added that the striking health workers had hoped the government would agree to their demands so as not to allow the  masses to suffer unnecessary hardship.

 She added that the action was necessary in order to push for implementation of the balance of 30 per cent Consolidated Health Salary Structure in the state as earlier promised by the government. “I have directed all our members to remain at home until  our demands are met, but we are appealing  to patients that would  be most affected by the strike to bear with union members as the strike is in the interest of everybody,” she told SUNDAY PUNCH on the telephone.

She further explained that health workers in the state had over the years been patient with the administration in the state following the death of Yakowa, and that the union wouldn’t have embarked on the strike if the government had reasoned with it during the meetings  held on February 3 and 25, 2014, where the issues were  extensively discussed.

Following the failure of the government to implement the CONHESS, the union leaders reportedly met with members and resolved that the health workers in the state should continue with the earlier suspended strike as from midnight of February 28.

Embarrassed by the action of the health workers, SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that the state government moved to stop the strike. Although, it was not clear the measures the government was going to adopt in calling off the strike, a source said the state government  does not have the finances for the 30 per cent balance.

 “The state does not have the money to implement the agreement now. However, the government will involve religious leaders in the state to broker peace among the striking workers so that they (workers) can go back to work,” said the source who pleaded anonymity because he was not permitted to speak on the matter.

Confirming this, Musa said the  governor had called on the union leaders to intimate them that the state does not have the amount to fully implement the salary structure.

She said, “The governor called some days ago to say  the government does not have the money to meet our demands but we think it does. We reminded the governor of the agreement with the previous (Yakowa) administration, in which he was the deputy. Government is a process and therefore, whatever agreement we had before is still binding.”

However, Musa debunked the claim in some quarters that the union was acting the script of some politicians in the state, adding, “This is industrial action and it has nothing to do with politics. We are not politicians and we don’t belong to any political party. As such, we are not even thinking of being used by any politician.”

As at the time of filing this report, the casualty figures owing to the strike action was yet to be collated as most of the government-owned hospital visited were still deserted. At Yusuf Dandsofo General Hospital and Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital, patients were said to have been evacuated to undisclosed private clinics in the state, as a temporary measure to minimise the casualty rates.

Meanwhile, since the commencement of the strike by the health workers, private hospitals in the state have witnessed an influx of patients. According to the spokesman of the St. Gerard Catholic Hospital in the state capital, Mr. John Ali, unlike during crises periods in the state, the hospital was coping with the influx of patients.

 “We are coping well with the patients that are flooding the hospital from other hospitals in the state as result of the strike,” he said. Ali urged the state government to fulfil its part of the agreement which the health workers said it made with them.

“The government should try as much as possible to resolve it so that they (health workers) can go back to work in order to take care of the patients in the various general hospitals,” he added.

Efforts to get the reaction of the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joseph Thot, proved abortive as he did not pick his calls or reply to the text messages sent to his telephone.