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EDITORIAL |
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Year : 2016 | Volume
: 10
| Issue : 2 | Page : 41 |
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Industrial strife unlimited in the face of limited funding
Ndubuisi Eke
Department of Surgery, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Date of Web Publication | 30-Aug-2016 |
Correspondence Address: Ndubuisi Eke Department of Surgery, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt Nigeria
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0795-3038.189450
How to cite this article: Eke N. Industrial strife unlimited in the face of limited funding. Port Harcourt Med J 2016;10:41 |
Strife has again mushroomed in the Nigerian health sector. As in the past, it is a money matter. Health workers in their wont are asking for more money. The government says it is insolvent. The crux of the matter is credibility impasse. This is unilateral. The government approved a pay package disingenuously termed skipping when the funds, crude oil funds, flowed in the pipes, and demand for crude were in a high pitch. Skipping was rather surreptitiously awarded a section of the workforce. When another section got wind of the bonanza, they were able to muscle the government to grant them the same skipping. In the early days, government raised a mere eyebrow and cast a glance. The resources appeared limitless. By the time the bubble burst exposing a very limited fiscal resource, it was too late to retreat from a Macbethian quagmire. While the government has not denied the pact it struck with the health workers, it appears to want to renege. The workforce, humbled by harsh market forces, appears to have their backs against the wall. Rightly or wrongly they hold the government in disbelief and suspicion. The common denominator in this unwholesome standoff is the hapless patient.
Government and workers owe the country a patriotic obligation to keep the system working. This calls for a dialogue with all sense of responsibility and mutual cordial interrogation to create and arrive at a win-win destination for the country.
All said and done, there must be a change for the better. Enough of fire brigade approach to problems. Doing the same thing every time and expecting a change in outcome is preposterous. In an impasse, something must give to achieve a resolution. It is time for genuine patriotism. A give and take tete-a-tete is called for.
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