COVID-19: Medical Guild kicks as Lagos disengages health workers

The Medical Guild has disagreed with the Lagos State Government for disengaging over 30 frontline health workers in the State.

The PUNCH learnt that no fewer than 30 volunteer workers at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba and the Onikan Isolation Centre have been told to leave.

The Medical Guild, Lagos Chairman, Dr Oluwajimi Sodipo, in an interview with our correspondent, said it was unfortunate that the Lagos State Government did not have any concrete agreement with the health workers that had been told to stop rendering services at the isolation centre.

He said, “Although I can’t give a specific number of workers affected, the majority of them were Medical Guild members.

“The state government just suddenly informed them and claimed they wanted to rotate health workers in the isolation centres. Our challenge had been that there had been no agreement with them in the first place when they started, even those that were been asked to leave, they were still being owed remuneration for the previous months they have been working.

“Some of the affected workers complained that they had at one point or the other became positive with COVID-19 and there was no clarification on the insurance that they were supposed to benefit from the state government. All these things should have been clearly stated in an agreement before they resumed at the isolation centre.”