Totally degrading of the Doctors, after taking an oath to save lives are now apologising for the death of loved ones. Why are we then blaming politicians and even judges for putting self first. The system is corrupt. I don't know how they sleep at home and people are left to die? Then you even blame policemen, these are so called learned people. SHAME ON THEM.

I think I have to continue from where I stopped. Doctors are just too wicked and also heartless infact that's an understatement. Even when on duty, they prefer to use majority of the time to talk rather than attending to patients, and this same people claim a raise. Chai!! They are always impatient to listen to the complains of patients and very harsh, At abroad, even when doctors are off-duty and at an accident scene, they would rush to help but the Nigerian doctors would work pass the scene.

I think I have to continue from where I stopped. Doctors are just too wicked and also heartless infact that's an understatement. Even when on duty, they prefer to use majority of the time to talk rather than attending to patients, and this same people claim a raise. Chai!! They are always impatient to listen to the complains of patients and very harsh, At abroad, even when doctors are off-duty and at an accident scene, they would rush to help but the Nigerian doctors would work pass the scene.

Nigerian doctors n nurses are seriously heartless. Should I say God caught up with a nurse with the bad act, some years ago. She was already off-duty at the time a patient was rushed into the hospital and her attention was called to it, she turned deaf ears to the call n went home. On getting home, she was told her husband was rushd to the hospital after serious illness, on getting she discoverd it was the same person who she didnt bother seein b4 she left bt it was late, the husband was dead. Only if,

Why are some people here getting headaches?
Govt has agreed to pay, doctors have called off the strike, all the govt has to do isw honour an agreement and everything will be fine.
Except you just have a personal hatred for doctors, leave matter.
Dey drink paracetamol for someone else's headache.

"This is good news for the people of Lagos.
It is only sad that so many lives were lost before the government allowed reason to prevail. All those lives could have been saved if they had followed the path of common sense rather than useless politicking.
Some people on Nairaland must be rweally sad the doctors got their demands(sorry to those of you who thought it was impossible )
I only hope the government will stand by its signed agreements this time so that this doesnt ever happen again.
That being said, a good government should now capitalise on this .
To whom much is given,'more' is expected.
After commencing payments, far reaching changes should be made to the service structure of workers in the state to deliver maximum benefit to the people using those hospitals. [b]It is one thing to pay doctors well, it is another thing to have quality service.
i will suggest that they ensure regular retraining of medical (and other) personnel in the hospitals.
Change employment structure to fixed term contracts of 1-2years,with renewals subject to performance and doing update courses instead of the current endless civil service structure.[/b]Moreso, things like a dedicated complaint line for malpractice and errors should be set up.
This is an opportunity to greatly improve the sector starting from doctors.
I hope the sector will have some rest after all the health workers are well taken care of and the politicians have less to steal and 'chop'.
Congratulations to all Lagos state doctors for getting their dues(certainly not their worth, they are worth a lot more than CONMESS)"

"It is one thing to pay doctors well, it is another thing to have quality service.
I will suggest that they ensure regular retraining of medical (and other) personnel in the hospitals.
Change employment structure to fixed term contracts of 1-2years,with renewals subject to performance and doing update courses instead of the current endless civil service structure.", the best comment I ever heard! I am a Nigerian trained Physician working now in the US. I can tell you that I am well compensated for what I do, but I work very very hard. Just like you said, I am employed on a yearly contract, renewable based on the quality of service I provide. The employment structure for doctors in Nigeria needs to change. They should be offered better salaries, but they need to justify their continued employment. It is not enough to apologize to families who lost their loved ones and it is not enough for government to prolong their negotiations with doctors before they see reason in their demand. This has to STOP!!!

^^^^^^^Thank you o!
That was my earlier post and instead of people thinking critically about the way forward they start throwing venom at doctors who stood up for their rights.

The doctors are not the only Nigerian we all live in this country work and earn little i wonder why the doctor thinks because they save life then they should be the only one to live good while the rest are behind , believe it or not despite the fact that Nigeria Police are corrupt if they should go on strike lots will happen even Banks wont be able to open and this people earn little yet they never go on strike , May God help this country and save our lives

eros:

evilspirit and texazzpete are obviously looking for someone to haul insults at this beautiful evening. Nobody is in support of the actions of the Doctors or the Lagos State Government. Infact, i am more against the action of the Lagos State Government, than of the Doctors.

But the Doctors need to find other ways of passing their message across whenever they are aggrieved rather than let poor people die who cannot afford to go to private hospitals. This is the issue here, being sympathetic to the plight of the poor.

You should simply make your points known rather than derail the thread and resort to name calling like uncultured animals who never saw the four walls of a school.

Cyber threats aside, you fail to make any intelligent contribution to the issue at hand.
You people parrot the same thing "There must be other ways". Which other ways?
Why have none of you been able to come up with any reasonable alternatives? As it stands, Industrial action is the only way to force your employers to take welfare issues seriously.
People keep talking about 'alternative methods'. it's talk like this that led to Primary school teachers in one of the South West state to declare 3 weeks of Prayers and fasting. At the end of the day, nothing improved.

eros:


Now let's flip the table around. How would you feel, if your mother, father, brother, sister or maybe child was in a critical state when the Doctors where on strike and you did not have any money on you to afford a private hospital would you still be holding this position?

I bet not.

Let's learn to be objective in our reasoning and stop being biased simply because we are not favored by the situation at hand.

You call this 'objective reasoning'? Ask yourself first if you want your child's doctor to be poorly motivated and throughly dispirited. Ask yourself if you are comfortable with having your doctor drive 2 hours to work every day to come to work simply because he cannot afford rent close to the hospital.
The party to blame for all this issue is the Lagos State Government AND the people of Lagos state. It is now you people know that Doctors are critical. They announced a warning strike and you people did nothing. They went on strike and still nobody did anything. These same doctors went on strike late last year and we had these same complaints of deaths and suffering. One would have thought that Lagosians would take to the streets to demand their leaders stick to the agreement they failed to honor but none of you did!

Lagos state is the most populated state in Nigeria. The doctors there are overworked by any standard. To top it up, the Government has implemented several free medical schemes which effectively increases the number of patients attended to by doctors. Any reasonable person will agree that when taking a decision, you consider all factors involved. it is immoral and unjust to take a path of action that will significantly increase the workload of workers without a commensurate improvement in their welfare. Did any of you people care then? No!

This is how you whiners helped destroy our educational system by refusing to support ASUU when they embarked on strikes to improve their welfare package. Now none of the bright brains want to lecture anymore due to the low starting remuneration. Who will suffer this in the long run, is it not our children?

otokx:

doctors will still go on strike this year; you all mark my words.

They have a signed agreement from the Lagos state Government. They WILL go on strike if these agreements are not kept.

The real question is, do you lagosians have the balls to tackle your government if they fail to live up to their words?

Mark my words, the answer is NO. You will all keep saying "Eko o Ni baje o!" until the bitter end. Naturally, you'll also blame the doctors.

good news but what about the nurses,

texazzpete:

They have a signed agreement from the Lagos state Government. They WILL go on strike if these agreements are not kept.

The real question is, do you lagosians have the balls to tackle your government if they fail to live up to their words?

Mark my words, the answer is NO. You will all keep saying "Eko o Ni baje o!" until the bitter end. Naturally, you'll also blame the doctors.

thanks texazzpete, my points exactly.

[size=16pt]you people keep shouting oath,is a doctor not employed by Lagos state bound to treat the sick if he visit a Lagos state hospital?nope!strike has nothing to do with oath it is about employee-employer relationship.it is about agreements.you cant force a doctor to work because of one oath he works because, he is offered a job.terms of job are negotiable.i'm happy for them.infact they should ask for more money free cars and houses.huge leave bonuses to enable their families travel abroad and many more![/size]

adozie:

"This is good news for the people of Lagos.
It is only sad that so many lives were lost before the government allowed reason to prevail. All those lives could have been saved if they had followed the path of common sense rather than useless politicking.
Some people on Nairaland must be rweally sad the doctors got their demands(sorry to those of you who thought it was impossible )
I only hope the government will stand by its signed agreements this time so that this doesnt ever happen again.
That being said, a good government should now capitalise on this .
To whom much is given,'more' is expected.
After commencing payments, far reaching changes should be made to the service structure of workers in the state to deliver maximum benefit to the people using those hospitals. [b]It is one thing to pay doctors well, it is another thing to have quality service.
i will suggest that they ensure regular retraining of medical (and other) personnel in the hospitals.
Change employment structure to fixed term contracts of 1-2years,with renewals subject to performance and doing update courses instead of the current endless civil service structure.[/b]Moreso, things like a dedicated complaint line for malpractice and errors should be set up.
This is an opportunity to greatly improve the sector starting from doctors.
I hope the sector will have some rest after all the health workers are well taken care of and the politicians have less to steal and 'chop'.
Congratulations to all Lagos state doctors for getting their dues(certainly not their worth, they are worth a lot more than CONMESS)"

"It is one thing to pay doctors well, it is another thing to have quality service.
I will suggest that they ensure regular retraining of medical (and other) personnel in the hospitals.
Change employment structure to fixed term contracts of 1-2years,with renewals subject to performance and doing update courses instead of the current endless civil service structure.", the best comment I ever heard! I am a Nigerian trained Physician working now in the US. I can tell you that I am well compensated for what I do, but I work very very hard. Just like you said, I am employed on a yearly contract, renewable based on the quality of service I provide. The employment structure for doctors in Nigeria needs to change. They should be offered better salaries, but they need to justify their continued employment. It is not enough to apologize to families who lost their loved ones and it is not enough for government to prolong their negotiations with doctors before they see reason in their demand. This has to STOP!!!

You must be one yourself, waiting for when you greedy loafers go on strike again for better conditions. Bet you it'll be before year's end. In the bigger scheme of things you still get peanuts so when a re you going to get your true worth. You overestimate your worth. nuff said. thanks for all that died during your stand-off.

lekyar:

You must be one yourself, waiting for when you greedy loafers go on strike again for better conditions. Bet you it'll be before year's end. In the bigger scheme of things you still get peanuts so when a re you going to get your true worth. You overestimate your worth. nuff said. thanks for all that died during your stand-off.

Question: Have you ever sat down in a Lagos State hospital to observe the doctors at work? No? So why call them 'loafers'?

Selfishness is the bane of Nigerians and it is what is keeping us where we are. Naturally everybody is jealous of doctors even from school. So they are used to being victimized. However, you can not blame them for having an IQ that reads a few marks above the average dude. But what i don't understand is that, if it is that easy, the teachers who taught the doctors, should have become doctors themselves.

But that is not the reason why i am here, not to join issues with people who still reason like we are in the 15th century.
Have you ever wondered why the ratio of doctors to patient in Nigeria is still 1 doctor to 20,000 patient? We Nigerians are so foolish that we allow politicians appeal to our sentiments and in the process become jaundiced to the real issues and sing the illogical song orchestrated by hatred and jealousy.

The reason is simple, it is not because Nigeria is not producing enough doctors, but because they have all left. Nobody unfortunately, seem to think there is something wrong with the fact that Nigerian doctors are the worst paid in the world, and that even Jamaican doctors earn far higher, not to talk about other little African countries like Botswana and Angola. They all pay at least 3 times what Nigerian doctors earn. I feel sorry for the ordinary Nigerian, because if Fashola falls sick today, he will be flown to the UK, US and even India, so it doesn't matter to him how long this doctors go on strike for. But most Nigerians can not even afford the substandard services of private hospitals here, not to talk about being flown abroad.
I think it is high time the Nigerian Public grew wiser and demand the same quality of services our leaders fly abroad to get. In this whole game, the public lose out, because, the doctors too can afford to take care of themselves if they fall sick. So Nigerians should stop being foolish and call the government to order.

Otherwise, more doctors will travel out of the country, and even after the strike, there will be fewer doctors left. And while some countries have achieved 1 doctor to 500 patient ration, we will be getting worse on it.

texazzpete:

Question: Have you ever sat down in a Lagos State hospital to observe the doctors at work? No? So why call them 'loafers'?

Let answer your question from a personal experience I had at Alimosho when I took my wife there for an X-ray session, when her turn came up after a six hour wait ( we were there by 5.30pm ) the doctor called up there roll, I said a thank you to him and in reply he said don't thank me. I was puzzled at his response cos i expected a better response from a gentle man of the profession (guess all manner of characters have ended up there with all this attitude on display). But a six hour wait and we were the first on call. It beats my imagination. Loafing is really an understatement. Excuse the harsh language.

forget who is for or against doctors.
kindly suggest what the doctors should have done when the govt refused to keep their word and honour a publicly announced agreement.
pls no insults, just simple suggestions.

lekyar:

Let answer your question from a personal experience I had at Alimosho when I took my wife there for an X-ray session, when her turn came up after a six hour wait ( we were there by 5.30pm ) the doctor called up there roll, I said a thank you to him and in reply he said don't thank me. I was puzzled at his response cos i expected a better response from a gentle man of the profession (guess all manner of characters have ended up there with all this attitude on display). But a six hour wait and we were the first on call. It beats my imagination. Loafing is really an understatement. Excuse the harsh language.

sir,
you application of statistics is awe inspiring.
on account of your dealing with one doctor, you have branded over a hundred thousand others loafers?
kindly let me know about your use of other govt services and govt workers.

mbulela:

sir,
you application of statistics is awe inspiring.
on account of your dealing with one doctor, you have branded over a hundred thousand others loafers?
kindly let me know about your use of other govt services and govt workers.

First impression matters as i do not patronize state hospitals and state doctors but the issue became imperative for documentation purposes. State doctor's are indolent. Other public services are guilty as well but I hold the services of the doctor's to the highest priority and standards.

BTW how much does each doctor receive in Naira? I always hear CONMESS, CONSHIT, CONPISS all those are the same acronyms that govt officials have been using to defraud the country.
If it is N10,000 and now they want 200,000 they should make it public and prevent this unnecessary loss of lives to frequent strikes.

lekyar:

First impression matters as i do not patronize state hospitals and state doctors but the issue became imperative for documentation purposes. State doctor's are indolent. Other public services are guilty as well but I hold the services of the doctor's to the highest priority and standards.

First impressions with ONE doctor.
Secondly, you have no idea what the doctor was doing for the 6 hours you were waiting. Was he sitting in front of you, cleaning his nails? Did you see him playing video games that you accuse him of laziness?

As someone earlier said, applying your personal opinion of one doctor to the thousands of state doctors in Lagos is really illogical.

texazzpete:

First impressions with ONE doctor.
Secondly, you have no idea what the doctor was doing for the 6 hours you were waiting. Was he sitting in front of you, cleaning his nails? Did you see him playing video games that you accuse him of laziness?

As someone earlier said, applying your personal opinion of one doctor to the thousands of state doctors in Lagos is really illogical.

Are you trying to hold brief for him, he reported for duty abt 10.00am, had this air of arrogance about him and unapproachable[right][/right], wonder if he could crack one simple calculus we did in our early years in school. Yes these doctors overrate themselves. I opted out of medicine for engineering cos I thought it was too soft a challenge. Now all I hear is how doctors sweated to go through school and as such deserve heavens. Take a statistic on this forum and the print media what the citizenry you serve perceive of your actions. Talk of statistics!!!. The people have spoken the doctors have carried the strike too far and what ever they get is blood money on their hands. They should come out and apologise for all the unnecessary deaths that will be a beginning process. Still very mad at y'all

As an addendum, how are you going to dispatch you duties were the nurses are on strike. Can you handle the pressure "golden ones"

@lekyar
Get it straight, i am a doctor yes and i am proud of that. I worked for Lagos state a long time ago before relocating to te UK.
You should ask questions if you're not sure about things, it shows being smart and some intelligence.
Are you even sure the person you are talking about is a doctor? i am not aware it is doctors who do Xrays and call patients, they may read and interpret but its radiographers who do that and to base all your assumptions about doctors on that single unfortunate episode is quite sad and not saying much about your abilities.
Just thought you need to know.

lekyar:

Are you trying to hold brief for him, he reported for duty abt 10.00am, had this air of arrogance about him and unapproachable[right][/right], wonder if he could crack one simple calculus we did in our early years in school. Yes these doctors overrate themselves. I opted out of medicine for engineering cos I thought it was too soft a challenge. Now all I hear is how doctors sweated to go through school and as such deserve heavens. Take a statistic on this forum and the print media what the citizenry you serve perceive of your actions. Talk of statistics!!!. The people have spoken the doctors have carried the strike too far and what ever they get is blood money on their hands. They should come out and apologise for all the unnecessary deaths that will be a beginning process. Still very mad at y'all

Don't you just LOVE that feeling of powerlessness? The Doctors have their agreement all signed and sealed whether you selfish people like it or not. The first duty of the Doctor is to cater for his family, why must he be the sacrificial lamb for you lazy lot, chained to your wants and needs and doomed to suffer in silence?

People like you are the lazy ones. What effort did you make to confront your state government over the strike? Now that the agreement has been reached, has Lagos state scattered? Will things not move on as if nothing happened?

You have been rendered powerless by your leaders, why complain when the doctors do that to you too? At least unlike the balding, pot-bellied politicians you people worship and adore, these doctors deserve their wages, every penny of it!

Whiners like you make me sick. The fact that you can belittle the arduous work put into becoming a doctor shows you up as someone who cannot be reasoned with. Babbling about calculus yet you apply elementary statistics in the most addle-brained manner possible.

At times I wonder why people talk out of ignorance, it could be really annoying when u are involved. I am a medical doctor, worked in lagos state university teaching hospital between Jan 2009 and December 2009.Let me give u an example of the average life of a doctor working in lagos state.During my 3months in the Surgery unit, I worked 24hrs every day for a whole week with just 1day off and even most times that day off was not a full day off, maybe just 4pm to 6am the next day,at times no off days for 2weeks, imagine someone working 24hrs everyday 6 days a week non-stop, at times i wouldnt be able to take my bath for 48hrs not for lack of a bathroom but for lack of time just because i was too busy attending to these same lagosians who now call me insensitive and whats the reward the Lagos Govt has for me: Till today 2yrs later after i stopped working for lagos state they are yet to pay me my salaries complete.And u say doctors shuldnt strike??!!! Do u think we dont have mouths to feed, we dont pay rent etc!!! For a whole 3mths, i culdnt see my family, i had colleagues whose young children see dem as strangers just cos of their long absence frm home, as i am writing today i am afraid of doin a HIV test, i havent done one in yrs because I cant count how many needlepricks I have gotten from Hiv pts while trying to save lives, how many times I have had the blood of HIV pts splash on my face, and when my employer refuses to pay me and after exhausting all peaceful measures and I know the only thing they wuld yield to is a strike, the pple i expect to call the lagos govt to order to pay us as we deserve to be paid call me insensitive.Now, I understand why docs keep trooping enmasse to foreign countries, maybe when we become like burundi where nurses perform operation because all their docs have gone abroad.Then we wuld better apreciate our docs n support them in their call for good working conditons and a pay they deserve.

lekyar:

Are you trying to hold brief for him, he reported for duty abt 10.00am, had this air of arrogance about him and unapproachable[right][/right], wonder if he could crack one simple calculus we did in our early years in school. Yes these doctors overrate themselves. I opted out of medicine for engineering cos I thought it was too soft a challenge. Now all I hear is how doctors sweated to go through school and as such deserve heavens. Take a statistic on this forum and the print media what the citizenry you serve perceive of your actions. Talk of statistics!!!. The people have spoken the doctors have carried the strike too far and what ever they get is blood money on their hands. They should come out and apologise for all the unnecessary deaths that will be a beginning process. Still very mad at y'all

you call 220k for a resident doctor heaven?
i shiver to imagine you idea of hell.
the single question i posed earlier has still not been addressed;having had a publicly acknowledged agreement with the govt,which the govt has the effontery and rascality to disregard, what options were left to the doctors?
how good is a govt that cannot keep its word?
that is the crux of the matter.

mbulela:

you call 220k for a resident doctor heaven?
i shiver to imagine you idea of hell.
the single question i posed earlier has still not been addressed;having had a publicly acknowledged agreement with the govt,which the govt has the effontery and rascality to disregard, what options were left to the doctors?
how good is a govt that cannot keep its word?
that is the crux of the matter.

The govt erred I quite agree and putting a figure on the conmess thing buys some sympathy but as we all know the states do not pay as well as the private sector and hence it should be expected some sacrifices should be made. What irks me is the needless deaths.

texazzpete:

Don't you just LOVE that feeling of powerlessness? The Doctors have their agreement all signed and sealed whether you selfish people like it or not. The first duty of the Doctor is to cater for his family, why must he be the sacrificial lamb for you lazy lot, chained to your wants and needs and doomed to suffer in silence?

People like you are the lazy ones. What effort did you make to confront your state government over the strike? Now that the agreement has been reached, has Lagos state scattered? Will things not move on as if nothing happened?

You have been rendered powerless by your leaders, why complain when the doctors do that to you too? At least unlike the balding, pot-bellied politicians you people worship and adore, these doctors deserve their wages, every penny of it!

Whiners like you make me sick. The fact that you can belittle the arduous work put into becoming a doctor shows you up as someone who cannot be reasoned with. Babbling about calculus yet you apply elementary statistics in the most addle-brained manner possible.

What sense of powerlessness when I have a coverage that whenever I have to doctors are at my beck and call, you make me laugh. Lets not go there. The govt erred as I said and I guess we as citizens would try to put things right, starting probably in a few days time. I hope also that the doctors can fashion out a way to push their agenda forward without the massacre of innocent citizens.

i am a doctor in the uk for 15 years now. first we don't swear hippocratic oath anymore .that one don pass
to the best of my knowledge less than half of my graduating year are still in nigeria. of those that remain
a good few have retrained to become other things including bankers and IT experts.

back when i was in secondary school you studied medicine not because you had any interest in it but because you were capable of getting the best scores in JAMB (i got 318). your parents forced  or misled you into it
you then leave university to find that it is the 218  scorers that are running things. well everybody  eye don open.

even when i was in LUTH i saw with my own eyes how people will rather use their money to do naming ceremony than pay hospital bill. the real wickedness in nigeria is systemic from the top down and nobody should blame doctors. a doctor here can easily buy a  NEW car within a few months. in nigeria you cannot do that with a whole years wages unless you are one of a very select few.
so you need to restructure nigeria and reward the right things not legislooters.
this is the essence of a society that works
WHAT AND WHO GET THE MOST REWARDS AND IS THIS GENERALLY PERCEIVED TO BE FAIR> HERE IN THE UK THE HIGHEST PAID TEACHER<CIVIL SERVANT EARN MORE THAN THE PRIME MINISTER
god knows i can never practice  medicine in nigeria

just one more thing, i forgot. president yar adua took ill a short while ago why was he not treated in nigeria by nigerian doctors?
emmmmmm,
apart from wages there is little investment in training though sadly it is the same in the police. i know for a fact that not every policeman carrying a gun in nigeria has had firearm training(they would rather sell the ammunition).
it would be funny if it was not so tragic

and pa saraki (A DOCTOR)has just returned from an operation in the US why not in nigeria.
to the best of my knowledge he did not practice a long time in nigeria,neither did his son nor raymond dokpesi( ati be be lo) =etc
i don't think doctors are the most intelligent but they are not the most stupid. a doctor should earn comparably to top bankers (not those small girls in SUITS)engineers with shell or IT experts and certainly more than legislators. in the US many doctors earn more than OBAMA. if nigeria won't pay there are others who will

aribisala0:

just one more thing, i forgot. president yar adua took ill a short while ago why was he not treated in nigeria by nigerian doctors?
emmmmmm,
apart from wages there is little investment in training though sadly it is the same in the police. i know for a fact that not every policeman carrying a gun in nigeria has had firearm training(they would rather sell the ammunition).
it would be funny if it was not so tragic

and pa saraki (A DOCTOR)has just returned from an operation in the US why not in nigeria.
to the best of my knowledge he did not practice a long time in nigeria,neither did his son nor raymond dokpesi( ati be be lo) =etc
i don't think doctors are the most intelligent but they are not the most silly. a doctor should earn comparably to top bankers (not those small girls in SUITS)engineers with shell or IT experts and certainly more than legislators. in the US many doctors earn more than OBAMA. if nigeria won't pay there are others who will

Very big GBAM!