₦airaland Forum

naptu2: Re: Federal Doctors In Lagos Begin Solidarity Strike For Sacked Colleagues by naptu2: 9:17pm On May 19

Unfortunately the doctors still haven't understood what's happening. How come ASUU, which has gone on strike more times than NMA, still has the support of the people, while the NMA has lost support?

naptu2: Re: Federal Doctors In Lagos Begin Solidarity Strike For Sacked Colleagues by naptu2: 11:11am On May 20

1)When ASUU goes on strike they demand for better laboratories, libraries, etc. Of course they demand for better pay, but at the forefront of their demand is better labs, libraries, etc. The public can relate with this.

2) When members of the public ask questions and come up with contrary views, ASUU takes the time to explain the reasons for their agitation. ASUU does not insult members of the public.

3) Attempts to gain sympathy by talking about poor pay, etc will not succeed. Most Nigerian civil servants are poorly paid. They'll simply ask, "what makes you different?"


This is a democracy and in a democracy a good way to win your case is to get public opinion on your side. The NMA has certainly not done a good job in this regard. If they show love to the people, the people will love them back. How do you show love?

1) Go on strike, but allow some doctors to continue handling emergency cases. Use this as a publicity tool to show the people that, although you are suffering, you still care about them.

2) Expand your agitation. Yes, you want higher salaries, but that's not all you are agitating for. We want a universal medical insurance scheme, that'll raise money for the health sector and make it easier to handle emergency cases. We want better equipments, etc. This will convince the public that you are not just thinking about yourself, but you have their interests at heart.


3) Conduct research (ASUU is very good at this). You want higher salaries, but the government is complaining that your salaries gulp 60% of recurrent expenditure. Demonstrate, with facts and figures, that the government can afford the increase and that it has no excuse.

4) NMA has allowed the government to give it the reputation of a very troublesome organisation. To avoid this, the NMA should have insisted on getting everything it wanted at a go. Repeat strikes make you look troublesome. The NMA should also meet with trade unions/associations of other health workers and sort out the problem of disparity in salaries.

5) Hold regular press conferences, so that the public will hear your side of the story.


Lastly, the issue of salaries of political office holders has been discussed many times. A simple search on nairaland will reveal many threads dedicated to this topic.

naptu2: The Telegraph

A doctors’ strike would betray their patients.

By Sarah Wollaston

Last Updated: 9:36PM BST 15/05/2012

The BMA is being unrealistic in opposing reasonable increases in pension contributions.

This week, the British Medical Association is trying to persuade doctors to vote in favour of strike action – the first such action since 1975. In doing so, the BMA proves yet again how out of touch it has become with the interests of patients and doctors alike.

When I joined the BMA after qualifying as a doctor in 1986, I was unaware that it was a union. I had assumed that it was a professional organisation supporting standards and education. And like most doctors, I joined mainly for a free copy of the weekly British Medical Journal, which at that time was the only way to find out what jobs were available.

Now, in a “Pension Ballot Special”, a BMA newsletter tells members that the association has no choice but to vote on industrial action for a “fairer” approach. It splashes on the 14.5 per cent that, crucially, only the highest-paid doctors will have to contribute towards their pensions. It claims, misleadingly, that no patients would be harmed by industrial action.

The BMA tries to persuade GPs that they could open for their usual hours during industrial action but not carry out any pre-booked or routine appointments, or issue any repeat prescriptions. Likewise, hospital colleagues are invited to turn up and make decisions about what is or is not an emergency. The results would not only be farcical but dangerous: doctors would find themselves facing an exasperated and irritated public. If that sounds unreasonable, well, the BMA industrial relations officer will be on hand to give guidance. He or she can expect to be very busy. The public is unlikely to have much sympathy.

Thirty years ago it was different. Doctors were relatively overworked and underpaid, but their vocation and professionalism commanded public respect. Then, thanks to a spectacularly mishandled negotiation by Labour in the 1990s, the much-needed investment in the health services went towards large pay rises, hand in hand with a reduced service to the public. GPs ditched out-of-hours work and Saturday surgeries because ministers misjudged the relative value of payments to doctors for these services. In other words, they failed to ensure that patients’ needs were paramount.

Labour also waved through the European Working Time Directive, which undermined continuity of care and, if anything, worsened working conditions and training for junior doctors. Assuming that all consultants were on the golf course or seeing private patients, the Government insisted that they should be paid only for the time they spent on NHS work. It should have come as no surprise that it ended up paying even more because of unpaid time that consultants were previously giving to the service for free.

A decade later, doctors are well paid and few GPs work Saturdays or nights; their out-of-hours work has largely been delegated to others and continuity of care has been eroded. The public are simply not going to feel sorry for striking doctors who earn more than £100,000 per year, sometimes for a four-day week.

To put the issue into perspective, doctors earning more than £120,000 pay 8.4 per cent of that into their pension pot. This would eventually rise to 14.4 per cent, but for those on a salary of £45,000, contributions would rise to just 9.3 per cent, an extra 1.4 per cent after tax relief. To get an equivalent pension in the private sector would require about a third of the same salaries – and doctors are living about 10 years longer than they did in the 1970s.

The rest of the country has woken up to the reality of pension costs – and we may soon witness what happens to a country like Greece, which has failed to do so. No government wants to pick a fight over public sector pensions, but to ignore demographic and financial realities would dump the burden on the next generation. Why should our children pick up the tab?

I hope doctors will follow at least one aspect of the BMA’s advice: “Whatever your views, it’s vital you vote.”

I’m often asked what the difference is between being a GP and an MP. One wag put it like this: “About £40,000 a year.” I would add that, as an MP, I now pay 13.75 per cent towards my pension, and work evenings and many Saturdays. Of course, one of the main differences is the way people feel about you. I hadn’t realised how much people respected doctors until I entered Parliament. That support matters, and a vote for strike action over pensions is a sure way to lose it.

Perhaps every doctor should ask a friend in the private sector how much pension they will receive, and how much they must contribute. They might be in for a shock. The BMA have made the wrong call; this is an unnecessary strike that would not be victimless. I sincerely hope that doctors will vote to put their patients first.

Dr Sarah Wollaston is Conservative MP for Totnes and a former GP

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9267399/A-doctors-strike-would-betray-their-patients.html

texazzpete: Please learn to read your post before you post it. The MP cannot dredge up sympathy for doctors to strike when they earn more than 100000 pounds per year

Do I need to tell you how much 100000 pounds in Nigerian money is? Do you think any medical doctor earning half of that in Nigeria will have cause to grumble?

Let the UK Government slash doctors salaries to 30000 pounds per year and see how the doctors will take it.

allycat: Please google doctors strike and see that doctors in the Uk are voting wether or not to go on industrial action.

belabela: Nobody thinks about her in Europe. And her's wasnt as bad a one of the coaches during the world cup in south Africa who picked his nose and ate it. You guys should get a life.