The Minister of Health, Isaac
Adewole, has expressed optimism that the striking workers under the National
Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, across the country would soon resume
duty.
The doctors had embarked on a
nationwide strike on September 4, crippling all health services at secondary
and tertiary healthcare facilities across the nation.
Mr. Adewole said that the
government “has done what the resident doctors under the federal government
asked for” and ‘this was to pay all outstanding salary arrears of the resident
doctors to the bank accounts of institutions affected.’
“We have done that and we believe
they should resume soon. We can only pay the money into the institutions’
accounts for them to disburse to the doctors, we cannot pay them individually
as that would take a longer time.
“The only problem which shouldn’t
be a problem is that we have told them we cannot solve that of resident doctors
in the state. They have decided to put states’ resident doctors as part of
their struggle and we cannot impose on state government to do same. We can only
plead on their behalf with the states,” he said.
The leadership of the NARD is
expected to meet later today, Tuesday, to appraise the response of the federal
government to their demands.
The government and the leadership
of NARD had met on September 6 and agreed to pay the arrears of the salaries
latest September 8.
Mr. Adewole said the Memorandum
of Understanding signed by the government and the leadership of NARD, agreed
that the doctors would resume once the salaries have been paid.
Arikawe Adeolu, a member of the
National Executive Council of NARD, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN in
Abuja on Monday that the Tuesday meeting would allow the leadership to appraise
events since its meeting with government.
Mr. Adeolu, who is also the
General Secretary of NARD, Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Jabi, Abuja, said the
outcome of the appraisal would determine whether the nationwide indefinite
strike would be called off or not.
He said the appraisal was
necessary as more than 90 per cent of members were yet to receive their arrears
as at 3 p.m. on Monday.
He expressed optimism that the
arrears would be paid as the federal government claims it had disbursed the
arrears to the hospitals accordingly.
“We were supposed to hold a
meeting on September 8 but it didn’t hold because the essence of the meeting
was defeated.
“We thought that government would
have paid by then but we got nothing. So, the meeting has been postponed to
September 12. It will be a closed door meeting to carry out an appraisal of
events so far.
“The federal government claims
that money has been paid to the hospitals. So, we need to confirm from members
across the country if they have received their salary arrears. Money is not
usually paid directly to doctors; it is sent to the hospitals so what we are
trying to do now is to verify whether the money has come into the hospitals for
onward payment.
“Today and tomorrow is enough
time for this money to be disbursed to doctors if it really has been paid. By
tomorrow we should have a clear view of whether this money has been paid or
not,” Mr. Adeolu said.
The doctors are also protesting
the sack of some of their colleagues, non-payment of “skipping” entitlement,
non-inclusion in the IPPIS platform and non-payment of their salary arrears,
among other demands.
It's not for you to say. Let's wait for the statement from the doctors
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