…after meeting with govt
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) will on Monday meet to decide whether or not to continue with their warning strike which enters its fifth day, Sunday.
This follows a meeting between executives of NARD and Labour Minister, Chris Ngige, as well as the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Health, at the weekend.
NARD executives and the Federal Government are said to have reached an agreement, the details of which are not immediately clear.
Informed sources say government has asked NARD to represent their demands and grievances and give time for reappraisal and response.
On May 17, NARD began a five-day warning strike to press home their demands after a 14-day ultimatum to government.
The doctors are demanding an immediate increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure to the tune of 200 percent of their current gross salaries.
Olajide Oshundun , spokesman of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, said in a statement on Sunday that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the end of a conciliation meeting convened by the minister of labour.
“The Federal Government has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), geared towards halting the five-day nationwide warning strike of resident doctors,” the statement read.
“In conclusion, the meeting agreed that NARD officers are to present the outcome of the MOU to their members in an emergency meeting within 48 hours with a view to suspending the strike they embarked on last Wednesday, May 17, 2023.”
On the issue of doctors omitted in the payment of Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustment, the meeting resolved that NARD should re-present the list on Monday, May 22 to the Ministry of Health, with annexes of the old submission and same copied to the office of the Minister of Labour and Employment.
The resident doctors also expressed worry that their members in Abia State “have been on strike for several months for perennial non-payment of salaries.”
According to the statement, the Federal Ministry of Health which took the matter to the National Council on Health in Abuja, looked into the matter and asked the Abia State Government to pay up in the interest of good health delivery to the people.
Nigeria has about 10,000 resident doctors according to NARD estimates for November 2022. In total, there are 24,000 doctors including consultants, resident doctors, medical officers engaged in the country’s health sector.
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors is an affiliate of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). It has 76 branches domiciled mainly in Federal and State-owned Teaching Hospitals.
Nigeria currently has 22 teaching hospitals, 20 federal medical centres and 17 specialist hospitals.
The five-day warning strike by Resident Doctors has reportedly paralysed activities at most of the country’s 22 teaching hospitals.
Reports indicate that only consultant doctors are now seeing patients in the absence of the striking resident doctors.
The consultants are said to be overwhelmed by the number of patients they need to attend to on a daily basis, leaving several patients stranded across the country.
The NMA said recently that Nigeria has about 24, 000 actively licensed physicians caring for its over 200 million population as a result of brain drain in the country.
“Based on WHO established minimum threshold, a country needs a mix of 23 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 Population to deliver essential maternal and child health services. This explains why Nigeria ranks as one of the countries with the worst maternal and child mortality rates.”
