The commencement yesterday of a strike by all categories of health workers has compounded an ongoing strike by doctors that began five weeks ago. The strikes have paralyzed medical services at the facility and totally shut down the hospital to the public.
Striking health workers in Bayelsa State closed down one of the designated surveillance center for detection of Ebola patients yesterday.
The workers also discharged patients who receive health services at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State. FMC health workers are onan indefinite strike.
Our correspondent reports that the strike is likely to impede the Bayelsa government’s preparedness to contain the dreaded Ebola Virus as the FMC was last week designated as a surveillance center for the disease.
Last week, the state government had set up a task-force on Ebola headed by Commissioner of Health Ayibatonye Owei. The task-force immediately named the Federal Government-run FMC and the state-owned Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital as key surveillance centers.
Last Monday, FMC’s health workers had embarked on a three-day warning strike to demand payment of outstanding promotion arrears.
The commencement yesterday of a strike by all categories of health workers has compounded an ongoing strike by doctors that began five weeks ago. The strikes have paralyzed medical services at the facility and totally shut down the hospital to the public.
A few health workers who spoke to SaharaReporters said Bayelsa’s designation of the FMC as an Ebola surveillance center had not been matched by any action. Even so, they said that FMC remained the most equipped and best-staffed hospital in the state.
“It is a mark of gross insensitivity for the hospital’s management to allow this to happen,” said one of the striking workers. He added: “If the management says it is a national thing, how come similar hospitals across the nation are paying these statutory allowances?”
Regarding the possible impact of the closure of FMC on Ebola detection and treatment, the striking workers said the responsibility lies with the government. “Let us pray that an Ebola outbreak does not happen here. The Bayelsa government has not taken any proactive measure to match its pronouncement and it is unfortunate that no protective gear is in stock to protect health workers who will have contact with any suspected Ebola patient,” said a striking worker.
She added: “My husband is also a doctor and I have warned him that if there is no protective kit, he should never touch any patient. And that was even before this strike. So I wonder how things will play out this time around.”
Two workers said their hazard allowance of 5000 naira was too paltry for them to endanger their lives. They recalled that a nurse who had contact with Liberian Ebola casualty, Patrick Sawyer, had reportedly died. “I’m sure that no one is talking about their families,” a health worker said on Wednesday.
The FMC strike has affected some critically ill patients on admission who were being managed by consultants and nurses. “The patients have been neglected by the striking workers who locked up the facility,” said a source.
“This is one strike too many,” said Moses Salo whose mother is one of the affected patients. “First, it was the members of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and now the other categories of health workers are joining them. It is very pathetic that no one cares for the interest of patients.
“My mother has been under intensive care and managed by the consultants who are not part of the strike, but this time around even the nurses and others have started their own strike."
“It is so bad that this is happening because my mother was referred to this place because the private hospital I took her to lacked expertise to handle her ailment. Where do we go from here?”
Simon Bernabas, coordinator of the Joint Health Sector Unions at FMC in Yenagoa, said on Tuesday that the various unions were compelled to embark on the indefinite strike after a three-day warning strike in June.
He said that the strike became inevitable because of the refusal of FMC in Yenagoa to pay promotion arrears and other outstanding allowances, adding that union officials had determined that their counterparts in other Federal Medical Centers were enjoying the allowances.
In his reaction, Dr. Ebitimi Etebu, the FMC’s Chief Medical Director, blamed the outstanding arrears of allowance on funding shortfall. We have explained to the workers that funds to pay them are not with us here and that they will be paid,” he said. He added: “But they just held a meeting and went on demonstrations on the streets.”
The administrator described the plight of admitted patients as well as the possible outbreak of Ebola as regrettable. “The doctors have been on strike for the past five weeks or thereabout and it is the same fate. There are lots of problems in the health sector that the Federal Government is not addressing. So long as these things are not addressed, the unions will capitalize on them to go on strike at will,” he said, adding that the management got no notification before the current strike.