The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has concluded plans to embark on a five-day warning strike action, from 8am on Wednesday May 17 to 23.
Nigerian Anchor reports that this would be the first time in 2023 that NARD would be embarking on strike, but the fourth time it would be happening since the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The President, NARD, Orji Emeka Innocent, disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja that after the National Executive Council (NEC) of NARD meeting on May 15, 2023, another meeting was convened to review the progress made and action taken by the Federal Government to address the issues raised in the two-week ultimatum issued to the Government on April 29, which expired on Saturday, May 13, 2023.
The President informed that the Association observed rather unfortunately, that till the expiration of the two-week ultimatum, the Government has neither reached out to the Association nor made any significant moves at resolving the issues raised – a situation they considered as embarrassing for a nation touted as the ‘Giant of Africa’.
The Association frowned at this development, and wondered how the Government could claim to have the interest of the Nigerian citizens at heart and still neglect such a well-publicised ultimatum.
It would be recalled that the Association has earlier issued an ultimatum to the Federal Government to demand the immediate massive recruitment of clinical staff in the hospitals and the abolishment of the bureaucratic limitations to the immediate replacement of doctors and nurses who leave the system.
They also demanded immediate infrastructural development in the hospitals with subsequent allocation of at least 15 per cent of the budgetary provisions to health in line with the Abuja declaration of 2001, immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) in line with the agreements reached at the stakeholders’ meeting convened by the Federal Ministry of Health at the conference room of the Honourable Minister of State for Health on February 15, 2023, increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) to the tune of 200 per cent of the gross salary of doctors, in addition to the allowances included in the letter written by NARD to the Honourable Minister of Health on July 7, 2022 for the review of CONMESS among other demands.
