The national assembly has invited the Nigerian Association
of Resident Doctors (NARD) to a meeting over its strike action.
Innocent Orji, NARD president, said he has received an
invitation to attend a meeting with the leadership of the national assembly.
The resident doctors began a five-day warning strike on
Wednesday due to the federal government’s refusal to meet its demands.
Some of the demands include massive recruitment of clinical
staff in the hospitals; immediate infrastructural development in hospitals and
an allocation of at least 15 percent of the budgetary provisions to health;
immediate payment of the 2023 medical residency training fund (MRTF); and the
immediate increment in the consolidated medical salary structure (CONMESS) to
the tune of 200% of the gross salary of doctors.
The withdrawal of the anti-brain drain bill from the
national assembly is also one of the prominent demands of the association.
On Tuesday, Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment,
said the federal government was already negotiating with the Nigerian Medical
Association (NMA) on a pay rise for doctors.
He also said the health minister would instruct teaching
hospitals to employ ad-hoc staff for the strike period and pay them with the
money meant for the resident doctors.
Speaking on Thursday during an Arise Television programme,
Orji said his association has had no negotiation with the federal government
since the strike was called.
“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,” he said.
“It was only this afternoon, 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
yesterday.”
On the federal government replacing the striking doctors
with ad hoc staff, Orji described the move as “strange” since a major part of
NARD’s demands is for the federal government to quickly replace the clinical
staff that have left the system.
“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,” he said.
“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.
“All we have heard so far from the government are just
threats and those threats they are issuing will be what will escalate the
crisis we have already.
“So, I want to call on them again to do the right thing. Our
demands are clear, they are specific, they are achievable and these are things
they can achieve in a matter of days.”
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