Abstract:

Frequent labour crisis leading to strikes is common in a developing country like Nigeria. This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out to assess the effect of labour strikes on access to service delivery in secondary Health Institutions in Cross River State, Nigeria. The 508 respondents were drawn from the outpatient, laboratory and pharmacy departments, Ante-Natal and Post-Natal and ART clinics of the 7 secondary health institutions spread across 3 senatorial districts in the state between January and February 2018. Data were collected with a semi structured, closed- and open-ended questionnaire. Raw data were entered EpiData™ and exported for analysis using the SPSS software version 20. The data were cleaned and validated for use. Frequency tables were produced and associations between categorical variables were determined using chi square test at a significance level of P<0.05.

The age range of most repondents was 25 - 45 with the peak value of 198 (39%) recorded for age group 25 – 34 years. The results showed that though many people did not know the reasons why health workers embark on incessant strikes, they did not support strikes. Seven factors were highlighted as the major causes of regular strikes in Nigerian health institutions and the knowledge of respondents about all these factors were tested. Overall, the accessibility of patients to healthcare during labour strikes was approximately 8% which was not a pleasant experience for the patients. Conclusively, labour strike has serious effects on access to service delivery in secondary health institutions in Cross River State, Nigeria.

Keywords: Labour Strikes, Access to Service Delivery, Secondary Health Institutions, Healthcare Workers and patients’ educational level

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