How is the health sector in your country? How bad is it for doctors, nurses, and patients? Will a strike action make any difference? We all know how bad things can get when medical practitioners go on strike, but will it be worth it if it makes the government finally pay more attention to the sector? Will a Strike Save Lives or Cost More?
Phew, this is a very intense and interesting topic, especially given the state of my country.
I remember reading somewhere that in the distant past, many people were declared dead and buried or even burned alive, and it makes sense because they didn’t have resources like heart monitors and other things we have now. But now, even with these machines, we still have deaths that could be avoided with very little effort — it makes no sense.
Just now I imagined my future self when I have graduated and become a certified laboratory scientist, and then patients are brought in and they are losing a lot of blood. I will need to do blood tests for transfusion, and then suddenly the power is cut off or the centrifugation machines are broken, and due to late timing, the patient is lost. I don’t think my mind would be in the right place — at least not for the rest of the day.
The health sector is meant to be the most important sector, because we all know, health is wealth.
That saying is a common one, but for some reason, I sometimes find myself making excuses for our government — like maybe they never heard it before, but then I give myself a hot psychic slap, because it's not possible and there is no excuse for playing with the lives of many.
Although I do have a fear of the outcomes or side effects of the medical sector taking a strike, I can't really blame them either.
Medical practitioners are trying to escape the condition of this country, searching for greener pastures elsewhere — just like everyone else in other professions.
A strike from them will definitely cause the loss of life, affecting those who can't afford expensive private medical services the most.
But even if they stayed with selfless hearts it wouldn't change a thing because the problem was never from them. You see hospitals lacking electricity and important machines needed for a hospital to function properly. My school hospital, for one, doesn't have an X-ray scanner, and I had to go elsewhere when I was sick and needed an X-ray examination. I once saw a real video of a Nigerian hospital carrying out surgery using phone torchlight in a dark room, and I felt both sad and disappointed. These are things the government should provide.
In fact, you know how people always blame the devil for bad things — even when he had nothing to do with it? Yeah, in this case, the horrible government in my country deserves almost all the blame.
And one thing I really fear about medical practitioners going on strike isn’t just the effect of having such an important sector stop functioning, I fear a strike more because I don't think it will do any good. At this point, if the government has been hearing the cry of the people ever since, what would make them have a change of heart all of a sudden?
I doubt their hearts would be moved. And right now only a change of heart can make a true difference. The best they’d do is use their tricks and cunning to quiet down the cries when they get too loud for them to sleep soundly. Or if there is any change it would last for only a minute.
But I still have a little faith that one day, one way or another there would be a change. And I hope lives won't have to be lost due to a strike in the health sector to make the government finally pay more attention to the sector.
