The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) may declare a strike next Monday, May 15, The ICIR reports.
This follows the Federal Government’s failure to meet the group’s demands.
On April 29, The ICIR reported how the doctors gave the Federal Government a two-week strike notice over its failure to meet their demands.
NARD threatened it would not “guarantee industrial harmony in the sector nationwide,” from May 13 if the government didn’t meet its demands within two intervening weeks.
The association has extended the deadline till May 15, when it convenes its extraordinary national executive council (NEC) meeting.
The ICIR obtained a circular on the planned meeting on Thursday, May 11.
Some of NARD’s demands include the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) payment, alleged refusal by the government to pay the salary arrears of 2014/2015 and 2016 to its members, and the arrears of the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage.
They also demanded an immediate increment in the CONMESS salary structure to 200 per cent of the current gross salary for doctors and called for immediate suspension of the bill seeking to stop doctors from migrating abroad.
The doctors equally warned state governments yet to implement the appropriate CONMESS structure, domesticate the Medical Residency Training Act, or improve the hazard allowance paid to their colleagues and other health workers to do so without delay.
Besides, NARD sought immediate massive recruitment of health professionals to replace workers leaving, immediate infrastructural lift in health facilities, and increase in budgetary allocations to health.
On Thursday, May 11, the association’s President, Orji Innocent, told The ICIR that none of his group’s demands had been met, adding that the National Executive Council of the association would decide on strike next week Monday, May 15.
The ICIR reported on Wednesday, May 10, how a former Kaduna State Senator, Shehu Sani, lampooned President Muhammadu Buhari for abandoning the nation’s health challenges and seeking healthcare abroad from the start of his government to the end.
In 2021, The ICIR reported how disagreements between government doctors and other health workers led to the nation’s public hospitals losing nearly 300 days in eight years.
NARD was on strike for several weeks in 2021 following unmet demands by the Federal Government.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's the ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022. Contact him via email @ mfatunmole@icirnigeria.org.
