I was highly elated when I read
the letter from JOHESU,Joint
Health Sector Unions, dated
August 4th,2014,threatening our
amiable Secretary to the
Government of the Federation(SGF) with indefinite
strike as from two weeks,starting from August
18th,2014, should the recent decisions the SGF
reached with Nigerian Medical Association(NMA)
be carried out. I think time has come for the
government to take a decisive stance in this
imbroglio just like the biblical Joshua did in those
days by urging the Israelites to choose the God
they would serve. We cannot continue like this in
the health sector,today it is doctors' strike and
tomorrow,it is JOHESU 's strike while the patients
are dying in their numbers.
THE ORIGIN OF JOHESU
Initially,the individual paramedical associations in
the health sector discovered that little importance
was attached to their individual industrial
actions,since whenever they went on strike with
their demands,they would find out that the
hospitals could not feel their absence ,thereafter
they would come and beg to return to work. That
was because medical doctors specialised in all
the fields of the medical profession since the Act
establishing the hospitals empowered the doctors
to do so hence in those days,when nurses went
on strike alone,doctors called house officers along
with patient's relatives took over nursing care of
the patients. When medical laboratory scientists
went on strike,specialist doctors called
pathologists(medical microbiologists, chemical
pathologists, haematologists, histopathologists)
and the hospitals' side labs manned by doctors
became fully operational in order to fill up the gap
created and the doctors called ophthalmologists
were there should the optometrists
misbehave,also the work of physiotherapists and
dieticians is what anybody with MBBS certificate
can easily do. If Radiographers went on strike ,the
doctors called Radiologists would take over the
radiology department,this is how it was and has
continued to be in all the units/departments of
the hospitals till date. Also,pharmacists
discovered that their work in the teaching
hospitals was fast turning into 'sale's boy/girl'
job which anybody that understands doctors
prescriptions can do,no wonder even in private
pharmacy shops owned by pharmacists,they
make use of auxiliary nurses and SSCE holders for
selling their drugs to the members of the public
but coming to government hospitals they want to
sit down and be 'cutting' their own 'national
cake' and at the end the government will be
forced to 'crown' them as consultants without
the required training. Consider for an instance,
their counterparts in other climes are currently
brainstorming on how to find the cure for Ebola
virus disease,while our Nigerian pharmacists are
busy struggling with doctors in alliance with other
non-doctors in our hospitals abandoning their
laboratories but when a doctor who specialised in
pharmacology blazes the trail in finding the drug
treatment of Ebola virus disease,they will then
come to contest with the doctor. Many of the
drugs used in this country are imported simply
because the pharmacists have left their statutory
functions. Can a medical doctor clamour to head
a drug manufacturing company or a pharmacy
shop,citing international best practices as the
reason?
In view of the above,many of these paramedical
professionals decided to come together to form
an alliance,what I may call a coalition,in the name
of JOHESU,and to ensure that the impacts of
their industrial actions were felt in the health
sector they incorporated clerical
workers,cleaners,security men,mortuary
attendants,in fact anybody that works in the
hospital except the doctors hence the aim of
forming JOHESU was and is still to fight doctors
in the health sector. The name Joint Health
Sector Unions is a misnomer ,the rightful name
which summarises their aims and objectives
should have been:Anti-medical doctors union
(AMDU) or better still,Non-medical doctors union
in the health sector(NMDUHS).The members of
JOHESU have more differences than
similarities,believe you me they will soon
incorporate the taxi drivers that ply within the
hospital premises ,the patients' relatives etc and
by extension(possibly outside the hospitals) the
herbalists,traditional bone setters,traditional birth
attendants,patent medicine dealers,maternity
home operators,homeopathic clinic operators into
their amorphous body in order to increase their
numbers.
ACTIVITIES OF JOHESU
When they go on strike,they lock up all the
accessible places thereby intentionally shutting
down the hospital and rendering the efforts of the
doctors nugatory.Imagine a scenario where
everybody in an organisation gangs up against
the manager(the doctors)?The aim of their daily
meetings is how to measure up with doctors and
overthrow them with or without the requisite
qualifications,the same way comrade Napoleon
led other animals to overthrow Mr Jones ,the
manager of the Manor farm,in the Animal Farm by
George Orwell .Even if NMA comes out to say
that Jesus is the founder of Christianity while
Mohammed is the founder of Islam,the members
of JOHESU,acting as gadflies,will be so fastidious
that they will find a fault in this obvious maxim.
The funny thing is that the so-called medical
insurgents are either medical drop-outs(those
that failed out of medicine while in the university)
or those who could not secure admission into
medicine through JAMB UTME. The 'real'
paramedical professionals that willingly chose
their courses as first choice in JAMB UTME know
their positions in the scheme of things in the
health sector hence they don't struggle with the
doctors for the leadership of our hospitals,clinical
departments because they were aware that their
courses were PARAmedical before choosing them
but for those that found themselves accidentally
as paramedical professionals,they want to
measure up with their friends who are now
medical doctors at all costs hence they look out
for countries that allow paramedical professionals
to answer doctors and force us to implement that
in the guise of INTERNATIONAL BEST
PRACTICES. They will tell you countries where
non-medical doctors are chief medical directors
of tertiary hospitals without first considering the
fact that majority of those hospitals abroad are
privately owned. They cannot cite states like
Arizona state of USA where it is a crime to add
'Dr' in one's name even with PhD if one is not a
certified medical doctor. In Nigeria here,many,if
not all,the catholic hospitals are controlled by
reverend sisters who are matrons(senior nursing
officers),has any doctor complained?Any doctor
who chooses to work there,knows that his /her
boss is the reverend sister ,the same is applicable
to other missionary and community-owned
hospitals in Nigeria. The law establishing our
public tertiary hospitals made it clear that only
professionals that are MEDICALLY qualified not
PARAMEDICALLY qualified are eligible to occupy
the offices of the chief medical directors.
Meanwhile,JOHESU members want to be
'ordained' as consultants thereby creating chaos
in the health sector .Many Nigerians have poured
out their ignorance on the pages of the
newspapers since the NMA strike started,a man
said that he checked the synonyms of consultant
in the dictionary and found out that it could be an
advisor,expert, etc,he went on with this show of
shame to ask what was wrong for non-doctors to
answer consultants .Such fellow has failed to
understand that no two similar words are the
same in English language,for an instance, long
and tall are synonyms but one cannot say that
'the man is long'.Also,one word can mean
different things in different contexts. Let us use
the word 'cell' for an instance,to the physicists
and engineers, it means a device that converts a
chemical energy in the electrolytes into electrical
energy,to the biologists it means the smallest
structural and functional unit of life while to the
police it means a small room where suspects are
temporarily kept before being charged to the law
courts. This is an example of the uninformed
public that our honourable minister of health was
challenging the doctors to come out for a public
debate. More so,the proposed debate violates one
of the principles of natural justice, which is
Nemo iudex in causa sua(no one will be a judge
in his own cause/case) as the general public are
the recipient of the ongoing NMA strike.
THE WAY FORWARD
Now that the government has recognised the real
owners of the hospital,they should go on and
privatise other allied health units. For more than
one month that NMA embarked on their indefinite
strike, all activities in the hospitals have come to
a halt even when all the keys to all the accessible
places are in the custody of JOHESU members.
We have experimented in this past one month
that the patients go to the hospital to see the
doctor who will now determine whether the
services of the paramedical professionals will be
requited or not. Now,let us carry out another
experiment since JOHESU has given the
government a two-week ultimatum.The
government should increase the salary of doctors
with enough welfare packages and at the same
time implement the terms of the recent
agreement with doctors while JOHESU is allowed
to proceed on strike on the following conditions:
(1)Private security firms be contracted to man
the hospitals
(2)Private cleaning services firms be contracted
to clean the hospitals including sterilization of
hospital equipment.
(3)Private accounting firms will be contracted to
take over all clerical activities in the hospitals
(4)Private firms be contracted to take over the
servicing and maintenance jobs of our current
Works departments.
(5)Private firms will be contracted to take over
the management of our mortuaries.
(6)Meanwhile,the striking JOHESU members will
be placed on no work,no pay and their salaries
will be divided into three,one part is added to the
salaries of doctors,the next 1/3 goes to the
payment of the private firms while the remaining
1/3 is used for infrastructural development within
the hospital complexes.
(7)Any member of JOHESU that willingly wants
to work with doctors will be allowed to come in
after swearing an affidavit of facts that he/she
will not participate in any union in the health
sector,will not struggle with doctors for leadership
positions,in fact the person must understand the
full meaning of 'para' attached to his/her
profession. When that is done,the hospital
management,on its own part, will ensure that
such an individual is protected from the expected
aggression from his/her former (by then defunct)
JOHESU members .
With the implementation of all our 24 demands by

the government and increment of our salary
packages ,doctors in different units/
departments,who are ubiquitous in the health
sector, will now fill up the gaps created by the
striking JOHESU members restoring the status of
the hospital the way it was when the paramedical
professionals were individually going on strike on
their own before forming the amorphous group
called JOHESU.
Dr Paul John
(A Port Harcourt -based medical practitioner)
mazipauljohn@gmail.com



Objective reactions are welcomed

You came late with these,it is stale and sour it has been trashed a long time ago. Seems you graduated yesterday.
Your delusions on the article is so palpable.
Being so Important, wonder why it is taking FG so long to acknowledge your 24 points request.

Remedy for Ebola is the keyword now. All hands must be on deck.

MrsAwesome: You came late with these,it is stale and sour it has been trashed a long time ago. Seems you graduated yesterday.
Your delusions on the article is so palpable.
Being so Important, wonder why it is taking FG so long to acknowledge your 24 points request.

Remedy for Ebola is the keyword now. All hands must be on deck.

Park well joor
did u not see the objective comments only?
In your deluded mind, it is stale and sour and thats why finding a remedy for Ebola does not include calling off the doctors strike and averting the impending JOHESU strike.

Spuggie:


Park well joor
did u not see the objective comments only?
In your deluded mind, it is stale and sour and thats why finding a remedy for Ebola does not include calling off the doctors strike and averting the impending JOHESU strike.

...and in your rightful mind, the article is an objective one abi? SMH

Spuggie:


Park well joor
did u not see the objective comments only?
In your deluded mind, it is stale and sour and thats why finding a remedy for Ebola does not include calling off the doctors strike and averting the impending JOHESU strike.

Very objective indeed.
I have no time for these anyway, these issue has been over flogged.

No need of reminding you to get your HAMZAT suit for we're going over to Ebola isolation zone.

MrsAwesome: Very objective indeed.
I have no time for these anyway, these issue has been over flogged.

No need of reminding you to get your HAMZAT suit for we're going over to Ebola isolation zone.

Dude grow up

MrsAwesome: Very objective indeed.
I have no time for these anyway, these issue has been over flogged.

No need of reminding you to get your HAMZAT suit for we're going over to Ebola isolation zone.

Dude grow up

Ochek:

...and in your rightful mind, the article is an objective one abi? SMH

guy, no time for you

@poster
i knw u didnt write d post. so wenever u see d author tell him dis for me........
am sorry to say dis bt i tink you and ur kind represent evrytin wrong wit our health sector. and if u tink doin away with oda health professionals wil mk our health sector beta dan dt of Ghana, den u got a big tink coming.
you r right about JOHESU. it ws actualy formed becos dere s strenght in number. and as for d pharmacists; maybe it would interest u to know dat we are not stuck to the hospital like d odas. we can always find our place outside the hospital anyday anytime...its part of our training.
seriously with this kind of opinion about oda health workers, the nigerian healthsector is a colosal failure then. cos d "insurgency" will not end.

Dr. Paul John-The problem of the health sector.

If MBBS degree holder wrote this awful article, Nigeria is in a big mess.

"Paramedics" who are paramedics.....help your lack of education.... Google is your friend.

"" any MBBS can do what physiotherapists do"" another show of shame. You are so unlearned and lack of exposure is killing you. Even, your health minister can never say this.

If govt has met your demands you can call the shameful strike off. NMA know no shame. We are all aware of that.
Pls find other things to do. This article exposes your ignorance about the happenings in modern health care.

JOHESU went on just three days strike, Nigeria hospital became a ghost town. JOHESU doesn't want a repeat of that. That is how a responsible union should think.

Pls make effort to read wide not just what your profs told you.

bumfem: If MBBS degree holder wrote this awful article, Nigeria is in a big mess.

"Paramedics" who are paramedics.....help your lack of education.... Google is your friend.

"" any MBBS can do what physiotherapists do"" another show of shame. You are so unlearned and lack of exposure is killing you. Even, your health minister can never say this.

If govt has met your demands you can call the shameful strike off. NMA know no shame. We are all aware of that.
Pls find other things to do. This article exposes your ignorance about the happenings in modern health care.

JOHESU went on just three days strike, Nigeria hospital became a ghost town. JOHESU doesn't want a repeat of that. That is how a responsible union should think.

Pls make effort to read wide not just what your profs told you.

no mind that guy............ Na d kind of them fly enta the band wagon.