Members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) have vowed to continue their 21-day old nationwide industrial action.
NARD says no member will resume work until the Federal Government publicises the communiqué on their agreement last year, fully settle the arrears owed them, rectify the bottlenecks with the new payment system and set guideline on the Residency Training Policy.
NARD National President, Dr. Jubril Abdulahi, told The Guardian, that the leadership is assessing the claims by the Ministry of Health that it has paid almost all the outstanding debts.
“We have asked our various chapters to report and submit what has been paid and what is outstanding, he said.
“But the main issue now is the agreement we had with the government last year. We want them to bring out a communiqué on that agreement. It is government that is holding us to ransom. We are ready to call off strike. We have a meeting tomorrow in Abuja by 4 p.m.”
Chapter President of NARD, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Dr. Emeka Ugwu, said yesterday: “We are still collating the statistics of the payment from the different centres. We are going to have meetings this week. We are eager to go back to our patients.
“We heard that they want to remove resident doctors from the new payment system. They should just correct the mistake. We don’t want doctors to be removed from the payment system. It is a wonderful payment system. They should devise a way of making correction and capture our members that are yet to benefit.
“Government has paid most of our members’ arrears except for one or two months, especially this month (October). They are settling our arrears but the issue we want is that we want to remain on it because it will curb corruption.
“One of the things holding us back from calling off the strike is the Residency Training Policy. Government should bring out the guideline. We are very optimistic that the strike may be called off this week.”
At the weekend, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, explained that the Federal Government has settled 95 per cent of the demands made by the doctors.
Speaking during a health walk in Lagos organised by the Institute of Directors (IoD), Chukwu said that, “all things being equal, I think latest by next week, they should end the strike.”
According to him, the main issue was the introduction of new electronic platform, IPPS, which had implementation issues, on account of which some doctors were not paid, stating that, “As Minister, I am also being paid by the system that was introduced across all the establishments owned by the Federal Government.
“There were issues in implementation, which is typical of most new schemes. So, some people were not paid because of the question of whether they should be included or excluded from the system. That was the argument going on, leading to the strike. But as at Friday last week, they have all been sorted out.
“If there are one or two lingering issues, they can be sorted out in a matter of time. But I don’t think the country has to pay the very high price of people losing their lives because doctors do not attend to them, just because they want to gain something that is not so significant compared to what they are already getting.”
He added that while all the Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) of government hospitals across the federation have confirmed receipt of doctors’ salaries, few of the resident doctors were yet to be paid as at weekend, “which is a small fraction compared to the greater number of those that have been paid.
“So I assure that others would be paid within this week. If it has to do with government’s commitment in the matter, they should have called off the strike since last Friday. But I guess they are insisting on paying every doctor. I think everything should be put into perspective – nothing should be do or die.”
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