Resident doctors charge Nigerian govt to increase budgetary allocations of health sector

In order to ensure sanity in the health sector, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has implored the Federal Government to increase funding as enshrined in the budget.

This was contained in a communique issued on Sunday following their National Executive Council (NEC) meeting tagged “ABUJA 2022” with the theme, “Changing Faces and Phases of COVID-19: Problems and Prospects.”

According to the NARD, an increase in the budgetary allocation of the health sector from the current 5% to 15% will improve the health sector while boosting the economy.

A statement read, “We urge the Federal Government to take steps towards curtailing medical brain drain. The Federal Government should look towards increasing the budgetary allocation of the health sector from the subsisting 5% in the 2022 budget to a figure closer to 15% as recommended in the 2001 Abuja declaration for health financing in Africa.

“This will enable more employment in the sector, improved welfare and service conditions for health workers, and also an upgrade of health facilities and equipment in our institutions across the country.”

The association further appealed to the FG to ensure the payment of the August and September 2021 salaries to its members.

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The communique also lauded the “Governors of Delta, Benue and Lagos States for blazing the trail in the adoption/domestication of the 2017 Medical Residency Training Act (MRTA) and also payment of Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) to resident doctors in their states.

“States said to still be owing arrears of salaries and allowances include: Abia (23 months), Imo (10 months), Ondo (6 months), and Ekiti (3 months).

“This is becoming inhuman and embarrassing.

“We also appeal to the Governors of Delta (1 month) and Gombe (2 months) states to release the withheld salaries of our members in the respective states, so as to alleviate their sufferings,” the communique added.

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