The Federal Government wielded the big stick against striking medical doctors in the country last week as it suspended all those on Residency Training Programme in federal tertiary hospitals nationwide. The resident doctors, who are said to number 16,000, had been on strike since July 1. They had rejected all entreaties to go back to work, even in the face of the virulent Ebola Virus Disease, which led the Federal Government to declare   a health emergency.
Undoubtedly, the over one month old strike has taken a great toll on the nation’s poor health system. The situation was not helped by the outbreak of Ebola fever, following the entry of an infected person from Liberia. Many lives had been lost to the lingering doctors’ strike, and it is not surprising that the government moved against the doctors in a last ditch effort to resolve the problem.
Throwing more light on the issue after the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said that the striking doctors were suspended and not sacked, a s earlier reported. He added that the suspension might last for months, as the doctors would not be recalled until the committee to be set up by the government to examine the problems of the sector turns in its report.
The decision of the government to suspend the striking doctors is understandable. Their insistence on not going back to work despite an emergency in the health sector on account of the Ebola Virus Disease raises questions on their patriotism and sense of responsibility. Their refusal to have a change of heart after about six weeks of industrial action, and in spite of negotiations with federal authorities, makes it extremely difficult to sympathise with them on their suspension.   As we have said on several occasions, it is unfair for doctors to stay away from work for weeks on end, while indigent Nigerians who cannot afford the high cost of medical care in private hospitals die. Yet, they want to continue taking salaries and enjoying the sympathy of Nigerians.
It is quite unfortunate that our doctors always go on strike over sundry issues like allowances, salary grade of other professionals in the health sector, and the right of other health professionals to be made consultants.
While some of the grievances of the doctors are genuine, others border on inanities that have nothing to do with the general improvement of the health care delivery system in the country.
No government worth its name will tolerate the incessant resort of doctors to the abandonment of their duties as we have it in Nigeria. It is not surprising, therefore, that the government has elected to call their bluff and cut them to size with this suspension.
It is not right that doctors hold the nation to ransom with their recurring strikes on every dispute, no matter how trivial. Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State moved against the doctors in its hospitals sometime ago, and sanity has since returned to its health sector because the sacked doctors were recalled only after intense negotiations. What this suggests is that our doctors need some form of shock treatment, if we are to tame the raging monster of strike in the health sector.
The doctors’ uncaring attitude to patients and their strong commitment to their own welfare to the exclusion of other health professionals is condemnable, to say the least. These doctors care less about the Hippocratic Oath that they swore to before they were   licensed to practise.
It is not strange, therefore, that many Nigerians have lost faith in the doctors in the public sector. Our view is that the doctors overdid it this time, especially at a time of national health emergency. Every good thing carried too far is bad.
However, considering the very poor student-doctor ratio in the country, we urge the government and the doctors to find a way to resolve this dispute, once and for all. Let both sides to the disagreement demonstrate sincerity in their deliberations and honour all agreements entered into to avoid a repeat of the ASUU experience. It is a shame that the doctors that the government spent a lot of money to train have decided to work against the nation through unnecessary strikes.
Ordinarily, embarking on strike is a notice of intention by a worker to quit the worker-employer relationship. In addition, anyone who has been away from his work for one month is deemed to have relieved himself of the job already.
We, however, think one of the reasons for these incessant doctors’ strikes is the penchant of doctors for running private medical practices alongside their work in public hospitals. It has become necessary for the government to sanitise the practice of medicine in the country. A doctor should either work for government or set up private practice.
The current practice of combining the two is inimical to service delivery in government’s health facilities. Government should also invest in the production of more doctors to curb the   arrogance of those in the profession. Efforts should be directed at strengthening the primary healthcare system, where the nation’s disease burden is very high.
Let the leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) swallow their pride and dialogue with government on the way out of this crisis.  The Ebola disease emergency in the country is enough reason for them to do this on humanitarian grounds. Anything short of this is self-serving, unpatriotic and uncalled for.

Suspension of striking resident doctors