SAN FRANCISCO, September 15, (THEWILL) – The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Abubakar, has advised doctors to choose the option of dialogue and avoid industrial actions when negotiating with the government.
Abubakar made this known in Lagos at the 34th convocation of 340 Fellows of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, Ijanikin, Lagos state.
The Sultan, who was honoured with an honorary fellow degree from the college, said patient’s interest should be paramount to doctors whenever they are in negotiations with the government.
He declared that there are good doctors in the country who could meet up with the health demands of Nigerians as he called for support from all doctors to get rid of polio in the country.
Continuing in the line of the Sultan, the guest speaker at the event, Dr Benedictus Ajayi, Group Medical Director of the Catholic Eye hospital group, added that strikes embarked upon by resident doctors have dire consequences from which most teaching hospitals are yet to recover.
“Many patients have died, some incapacitated, equipment damaged from disuse and sadly training programmes have been disrupted due to various industrial actions by doctors,” he said.
“To abandon one’s patients for any reason is tantamount to lack of compassion, lack of feelings, denigration of the human being, loss of humanity knowing the complications that would arise from non-treatment or inadequate treatment and damning the consequences.”
He however advised that lobbying the right persons with quality medical services will go a long way in resolving most of the demands of doctors instead of resolving to industrial actions as he advised doctors to check their attitudes as that is what will differentiate a successful doctor from the rest.
Story by David Oputah
