Why Doctors go on strike?

It was 7: 45am; I dropped my daughter off at school and drove to my office. By 8: 05 I was at my desk, ready to work. By 10: 43am I was called in for a meeting, two minutes after I settled down for the meeting, I received a call from my daughter’s school; she had just been rushed to the hospital.

Shock, fear and sweat gripped me all at once as I drove to the hospital; Doofan my only daughter, I saw her school bus outside, two teachers, the headmistress and the proprietress. Then I saw my only daughter lying down on a bench bleeding from the mouth. I was told she fell from the stairs in her school. As I held her hand, she cried, “Daddy, hold me I don’t want to die, where is Mummy… I don’t want to die.” Then I looked round and shouted at the nurse, where is the doctor on duty? She looked at me and kept drinking her tea. Where is the Doctor on duty I shouted again! And she pointed at the corridor, there I saw the Doctor holding the hands of a nurse chatting!

I walked up to the man whom the nurse had pointed at and begged almost in tears, my daughter needs your attention I pleaded. And he said “we are on strike”. I rushed back to stay with my daughter as I heard my wife’s voice wailing, the school had called her too. She ran past me and walked up to the doctor begging in tears, help my daughter she said. And again, the Doctor said, “all Doctors are on strike”.
I waited impatiently for the doctor to finish chatting and before I knew what was happening, I saw the doctor holding hands with the nurse, walking away.

I shook my head and tears rolled down my eyes, I walked back to my wife to console her.
As I wondered which hospital to take my daughter, a man in blue uniform walked up to me and said, “Oga, maybe you should go to Dr. Dike’s hospital, it is down the road.

He gave me the description and I drove my family to the hospital, my daughter was still bleeding. As I got to the hospital, I was asked by a polite nurse to hold on for the doctor, that he was on his way to the hospital. She gave us a private room and started what seemed like first aid treatment.

Within 15 minutes, the doctor arrived. He walked up to my wife and I and apologized for his lateness. I was speechless as I watched him attend to my daughter. He was nice, polite, and ready to give her the best care. He was the same man I had seen earlier who was too busy chatting with a nurse to attend to me. He is Dr. Dike!

I watched him give my daughter the best medical attention. The polite nurse beckoned on me and she gave me the bill. Alas! The figure on it was eight times higher than what I would have paid at the government hospital. I left and drove back to my office…
As drove I bought a copy of Thisday newspaper on Monday, June 22, 2009 I flipped through the pages when I got back to my office, searching for my favourite page, business page. Just before I got to the page, an interesting caption caught my attention on page nine “FG Pleads for Understanding over NMA’s Demand”.

My Point:
Are these doctors going on strike so Nigerians can patronise their expensive private clinics? Are they messing up the image of the hospitals by going on strike so they can get patronage at their private hospitals? These are questions begging for answers. If what I read in Thisday is true and the Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin is putting all things in place for them and they still can’t put up their acts together and get the best out of their jobs, then it is just unfortunate, very unfortunate.

The last paragraph of the Thisday report states that “The agitation for improved wages and benefits has been on for over 11 years”. So, does it mean if Osotimehin gives them all they are asking for they will give their best to their work or find another reason to go on strike?