Boom for private hospitals as JOHESU strike persists
By Operators of private hospitals in the country have seen a rush in business owing to the persistent industrial action by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).
JOHESU has refused to call off the 36-day old strike until the government meets the salary adjustment and harmonisation, which are part of the major demands of the striking health workers.
BusinessDay gathers that this has created a boom for private hospital operators, as patients continue to flock in droves for treatment. Some private hospital operators say that patients are now receiving treatment from their facilities despite the exorbitant cost.
“For the past one month JOHESU has embarked on indefinite strike, we have been very busy. The private facilities see more patients figure coming in everyday because the government hospitals are unstaffed due to the ongoing strike. So, we see more patients coming for consultations on daily basis,” Lanre Yusuf, a doctor in a Lagos-based private hospital, said.
Officials of the accounting department of some private hospitals contacted confirm that revenue has increased by as much as 70 percent in three hospitals contacted around Lagos, within the last month, and doctors are now seeing twice the number of first time patients.
The ongoing strike has paralysed activities in government hospitals including general hospitals and medical institutions. Patients who have emergency needs have no recourse than to visit private medical facilities, regardless of the cost.
A pregnant woman who abandoned appointment in the government hospital for a private medical facility told BusinessDay, it was a question of necessity. “I am already due for delivery any moment from now, but the JOHESU strike has changed the story because I was sent back from the general hospital I was using that I cannot be attended to because they are on strike.
“I have pleaded with this private hospital to use the previous medical history of mine, but my pleading fell on deaf ears as they will not take any previous medical history not originating from them. I now have to start the ante natal afresh at this private hospital, so that I can deliver at the hospital, not minding the cost,” she said.
Another patient, Osas Orabotor, an auto mechanic in Benin City, said: “My daughter was rushed to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and was diagnosed of appendicitis and an immediate operation was meant to be performed on her, but the hospital refused to carry out the operation because they are on strike. I had to take her to a nearby private hospital close to our house.
“I paid N60,000 and the operation was done by the private hospital. I also met some other parents of some patients at UBTH who also took their wards to private hospitals for treatment,” Orabotor said.
Doyin Odubanjo, chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Lagos chapter, said hospitals could and would continue to function with doctors alone, however, given that they cannot function maximally, they would attend to fewer people. “If this continues, there will be more deaths as fewer people will access healthcare.
“There is a lot of breakdown already; checks in the facilities have shown that essential services and healthcare delivery at the state and local government levels have significantly dropped as a result of the strike,” Odubanjo said.
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