Crisis looms in health sector over salaries, residency scheme

Doctors give govt 21-day ultimatum

Signals from the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) indicate that the health sector may soon witness a major industrial action.

The association has given government 21 days ultimatum to address some demands “failure which industrial harmony in our hospitals may not be guaranteed.”

The doctors are not worried about last week’s memo from the Ministry of Health direct‎ing implementation of no-work-no-pay policy implementation in the sector.

NARD, yesterday, lamented that the residency training programme is still not funded and is still without guiding policies. The doctors are particularly concerned about the alleged sack of its members from some institutions. They alleged also that some of their members in some state-owned hospitals have not been paid salaries ranging from three to eight months.

President of the association, Dr. Muhammad Adamu Askira, told journalists that the government was not funding the hospitals as it should, and wondered why a residency programme to train doctors won’t be funded. “We implore the government to adequately fund hospitals at all levels and upgrade existing facilities in line with international best practices which will go a long way to curb the menace of foreign medical tourism.

“We urge governments at all levels to release and implement residency training guidelines with appropriate budgetary backing.
“Our association will no longer tolerate the undue sack of resident doctors, and we demands immediate reversal of such. We also urge the government at all levels to strictly comply with the Pension Deductions Act as amended (2014),” he said.

Askira urged government to ensure appropriate and adequate remuneration of the resident doctors at various hospitals.
Asked about government’s recent memo of no-work, no-pay in the sector, Askira said the doctors would not be deterred by it, arguing that the government has no moral justification to implement no-work, no-pay policy.