Doctors employed by the Lagos State Government have, under the aegis of the Medical Guild, accused their employers of paying lip service to their welfare.
According to them, many government-employed doctors have resigned due to the poor remuneration and victimisation.
The Chairman of the Medical Guild, Dr. Saliu Oseni, who spoke during a briefing in Lagos, warned that more doctors would leave if nothing was done to douse the tension among medical practitioners in the state.
Oseni urged the state government to address the stagnation in the promotion of medical personnel to avoid crises across health facilities in the state.
“Many officers were found to have been stagnated and denied promotion for up to 13 years in some cases, even though many of these officers were used to initiate and stabilise the residency training programme in the early days of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, formerly General Hospital, Ikeja” he said.
He added that the non-implementation of the adjusted Consolidate Medical Salary Scale for doctors agreed on in 2014 had also compounded the problem.
Oseni said, “There is shortage of medical doctors in the state. We are in a situation whereby a doctor sees over 80 patients per clinic and this will get worse if these problems are not addressed.
“We have employed many peaceful means to bring about the implementation of these corrections, by informing the state government under the leadership of Governor Akinwumi Ambode, but recent events have shown that this is unlikely to succeed.
“Even newly employed doctors resign, within one year of employment, for greener pastures abroad. And a situation whereby hospitals are understaffed means that the citizens will be the victim.”
END
Be the first to comment