Nigerian doctors under the umbrella of the National Association of Resident Physicians (NARD) have announced plans to start a five-day warning strike if the Nigerian government does not meet their demands.
The association’s president, Emeka Innocent, said the decision was made at the extraordinary meeting of the NARD National Executive Council (NEC) held virtually on Monday.
Innocent said that the warning strike will begin at 8 am on Wednesday May 17 and end at 8 am on Monday May 22.
NARD had issued a two-week ultimatum on April 29 to the government to comply with their demands or face industrial action.
Labor and Employment Minister Chris Ngige however called the doctors’ demands “absurd”.
Ngige said resident doctors suffer from “entitlement syndrome”, insisting that the federal government has done everything possible “to give them everything they want”.
“We have been handling your matter and we have given you everything you want including residency training program funds, we are paying you, even when you are in training, we pay you full salary, we pay you all allowances and you decided that we have, not enough has been done,” he said.
Physician demands
The doctors, among other issues, are demanding immediate payment from the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), tangible steps in the “upward revision” of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), and payment of all back wages. owed to its affiliates since 2015.
The association also condemned the controversial bill that seeks to force doctors and dentists to practice for five years before moving abroad, noting that this would increase the challenge of brain drain in the health sector.
The ARD president said the body frowns on the government’s deliberate refusal to pay back wages from 2014, 2015 and 2016 to its affiliates, as well as the arrears of consequent minimum wage adjustments.
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He said many state governors “have yet to implement the proper CONMESS structure, tame the Medical Residency Training Act (MRTA) or improve the hazard allowance paid to NARD members.”
The doctors demanded an “immediate increase in the CONMESS salary structure to the tune of 200 percent of the doctors’ current gross salary in addition to the new allowances included in the letter written by NARD to Health Minister Osagie Ehanire in 2022.”
Other demands include: “The immediate massive recruitment of clinical staff in hospitals and the total abolition of bureaucratic limitations on the immediate replacement of doctors leaving the system.
“Immediate commencement of payment of all back wages owed to our members by the various state governments, including the Abia state government.”
medical residents
Resident physicians are physicians who are training to become specialists/consultants. They make up the majority of doctors in tertiary hospitals in Nigeria and when the NARD goes on strike, activities come to a standstill in these hospitals.
In January, the association issued an ultimatum to the government to resolve the issues affecting its members, including the immediate implementation and payment of the new risk allowance and arrears.
The doctors said the government has not yet met their demands.