The Lagos state government, on Monday dismissed 788 medicals doctors in the Lagos State public service over their persistence with an ‘illegal strike’, and refusal to answer a query over a warning strike.
The state government also announced the employment of 373 doctors for immediate deployment in the public hospitals while recruitment continues.
The doctors dismissal was authorised by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) Board and the State’s Health Service Commission (HSC), following an illegal strike embarked upon by the doctors since April 16, 2012.
A statement signed by the Head of Service of Lagos State, Adesegun Ogunlewe, stated that the two bodies attributed the sack to the refusal of the striking doctors to answer to queries issued to them to explain why they were absent from work without leave and without the due observance of the rules and regulations guiding strikes and industrial actions in the State’s Public Service.
The sacked doctors include 316 doctors who were working with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, while the remaining 472 were from other hospitals in the State.
With the dismissal of the doctors, the state government has immediately employed 373 new doctors to assume duties across the state owned medical institutions across the state.
The state government also stated that it has placed advertisement in some national dailies seeking applications from suitably qualified Medical Doctors and Consultants/Specialists desirous of working with the government.
Explaining what led to the dismissal sack of the doctors, Mr Ogunlewe, stated that “resulting from the contemptible act of the Medical Doctors LASUTH Board and HSC, the two bodies that appointed them in line with subsisting statutes, served those who were ‘Absent without Leave’ (AWOL) with queries”, adding that while a handful of them responded, majority of the doctors shunned the query.
The statement maintained that the strike came as a rude shock to the state government noting that “the leadership of the Medical Guild still met during the week preceding the illegal strike with top Government officials in charge of Health and establishment sectors”.
On what made the strike illegal, the statement noted, among other things, that the doctors only gave the State Government 24 hours’ notice “as against the time-tested and statute-bound processes and procedures for declaration of industrial disputes”.
