HUNDREDS OF DOCTORS have been fired in Lagos, Nigeria in an ongoing pay dispute.

The doctors followed a three-day strike in early April with an indefinite strike from 24 April in their push for the implementation of a pay increase agreed by the governor in late 2010.

Lagos State Government said the doctors who have been dismissed failed to respond to queries regarding the ‘illegal strike’.

Nigeria’s Daily Times reports that of the 788 doctors dismissed, 316 were employed by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital; the others were employed at a number of state hospitals.

Almost 800 doctors who were employed by the city have been fired. Responding to the dismissals, the Medical Guild chairman Dr Olumuyiwa Odusoted said that the issue has been referred to the Nigerian Medical Association.

He said the dismissals confirm the government’s insincerity to resolve the dispute with medical staff, AllAfrica reports.

The BBC’s reporter in Lagos says that the hospitals affected by the strike, and now dismissals, have been staffed by nurses but that there are concerns over patient care as a result.