Strike: National Assembly to meet resident doctors on Friday

The National Assembly will meet the leadership of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) over its ongoing strike on Friday.

The doctors began a five-day warning strike on Wednesday over the Federal Government’s failure to address their demands.

They are demanding an immediate review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure by 200 percent of their current salaries, immediate withdrawal of the bill on compulsory five-year service in Nigeria for graduates of medicine and dentistry before approval of a license for full medical practice, and immediate implementation of CONMESS, among others.

The NARD President, Innocent Orji, confirmed the development in a programme on Arise TV on Thursday.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had on Tuesday advised the doctors to shelve the strike.

He also vowed that the federal government would invoke the “no work, no pay” policy if NARD proceeded with the strike.

READ ALSO: Resident doctors begin warning strike Wednesday

In the programme, Orji described as strange the threat by the federal government to replace the striking doctors with ad hoc staff.

He also dismissed reports of negotiation between the government and the association.

The NARD president said: “All we are hearing on the media is that the government is negotiating with us but nobody has called us for any negotiation except that they are negotiating with other associations, but not NARD.

“It was only this afternoon (Thursday), a few minutes ago that I was informed of a meeting convened by the National Assembly for tomorrow. It was just this afternoon I saw the invitation but outside that, there has not been any negotiation since Monday when our national executive council had an extraordinary session and declared the five-day strike that commenced on Wednesday.

“We have been saying that we have a massive manpower shortage in our hospitals and we do not have enough numbers to contain the influx of patients in hospitals across the country.

“So, if the government that has refused to do that is now waking up to employ ad hoc staff as a way for resolving this issue, I wish them good luck. But just like I have been saying, as long as they do not negotiate in good faith, the crisis in the health sector will continue, our members are watching.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now