Doctors in the payroll of the Lagos State Government on Sunday declared a three-day warning strike across all government hospitals in the state.
The Chairman of the guild, Dr Oluwajimi Sodipo, announced this on Sunday while addressing a press conference in Lagos State.
According to him, the medical practitioners took the decision to embark on industrial action over issues they say affect their safety and welfare.
The doctors had asked the state government to address the wage disparity between them and their federal counterparts.
They also implored the state government to approve hazard and inducement allowances which the Federal Government had approved for doctors on its payroll.
Sodipo said:
“After robust deliberations, the Council observed that the following were some of the unresolved demands of the Guild.
“They include wage disparity between Federal and Lagos State doctors which was not being given attention, the issue of COVID-19 hazard allowances and inducement allowances as approved by the Federal Government which have not yet been domesticated by Lagos State for her doctors; that the doctors working in the isolation centres were still being owed two months’ allowances which have not been paid as at the time of the meeting.”
“There were also concerns that they (the doctors) were unceremoniously disengaged without recourse to their welfare,”
In view of the challenges, he revealed that the representative council resolved to activate the resolution of the association on a three-day warning strike.
he noted that the industrial action would commence from 8am on Monday to 8am on Thursday.
He, however, said members of the guild working in the state’s coronavirus (COVID-19) isolation centres have been exempted.
As the Lagos state doctors prepare for strike, reports for Covid-19 in the state disclosed by Commissioner for Health in the state Professor Akin Abayomi stated that 224 new COVID-19 infections were confirmed positive out of the 1,245 tests conducted on Saturday.
he added that as of July 11, Lagos has a total of 12,280 confirmed cases of COVID-19 from 48,929 tests conducted so far.
Professor Akin Abayomi, also confirmed that 1,850 cases have since been discharged from the government’s care centres following their full recovery from the disease.
According to him, 329 cases are currently under isolation in public and private care centres while 2,023 active cases in communities are yet to turn up for admission.
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