Real People, Gossip and gists; LUTH resident doctors on strike again

Resident doctors commenced a 3-day warning strike to protest the poor working conditions at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, as well as to compel the LUTH management to expunge certain clauses in the appointment letters of new resident doctors.

Getting a residency training is essentially an act of God now because there are not enough training centers. When you get in you spend about six and half years specializing then to be thrown back into the labour market in search of a job as a consultant. 

LUTH has now decided that even before completing the training, the new resident doctors would have to reapply for their jobs after scaling the first hurdle of the training. The association of resident doctors (ARD) are kicking against this clause as the management during their own training did not have to go through such stress.

The aim of the management is to weaken the ARD and victimize doctors by not reemploying any doctor that they consider troublesome.

The power situation in LUTH is so terrible that patients requiring emergency surgeries or investigations have to leave if they can afford private hospital or face the risk of dying. Also the prices of services in LUTH is the highest amongst all teaching hospitals in Nigeria, this deters patients from coming to LUTH and adversely affecting the training. of resident doctors especially the surgical residents who have to literally fight each other for surgical cases.

These and more has prompted the current strike.