LUTH Resident Doctors embark on indefinite strike!

Resident Doctors at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital [LUTH] have embarked on an indefinite strike action over the implementation of a new tax law which they criticize as exorbitant and lacking in uniform application.

Following a congress of the members last Friday which discussed the financial burden occasioned by the new tax law, the association immediately embarked on an indefinite strike action pending the resolution of the tax issues.

The Secretary of the Association of LUTH Resident Doctors, Dr. Kehinde Okunade, told newsmen that the resolve to embark on a strike followed review of certain conditions of service at the hospital.

He said their work conditions were deteriorating every day, and that erratic power supply, lack of water in the hospital wards and poor training programs for the doctors, among other issues, have remained unresolved for many years. The management of LUTH, he added, has over-applied the federal government’s new tax law without bothering about the unpleasant conditions of service at the hospital.

“Despite that the condition of service here is too poor, there is no light in the wards, no water, blood bank not functioning properly and all they can do is implement a new tax law that some of us now pay N30,000 as tax,” he pointed out.

The doctors fault the manner of implementation of the new tax law at LUTH, noting that only doctors in the hospital pay in excess where their counterparts pay normal rate stipulated by the law.

The new tax law by the Federal Government came into effect in June 2011, but the resident doctors say it was introduced by the management at LUTH in August 2012.

The doctors say that the message of their strike is that the management of LUTH should revert to the status quo to permit for proper discussion of the new tax system. They say they are at a loss as to the calculation adopted by the management that has made their payable income taxes so high and as a result will not open for operations until their terms are met.