Kayode ShopekanRESIDENT Doctors have appealed to the Federal Government to honour their demands, to avoid resumption of the recently suspended strike.
Recall that the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors suspended its 2-month old strike and promised to return to work by Wednesday.
They further appealed to the government to commit to keeping their own end of the bargain, to ensure a smoother work experience.
Speaking with Prime Business Africa, President, Association of Resident Doctors (LUTH Chapter), Dr Oluwafemi Hassan explained that the decision to suspend the ongoing strike was reached at the National Executive Council meeting of the Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), as goodwill to the government and Nigerians, having listened to all the stakeholders including the President Muhammadu Buhari and the Vice President, Dr Yemi Osinbajo.
Recall that the doctors embarked on a nationwide strike in August over backlogs of unpaid salaries and hazard allowances, considering that some of their members have lost their lives in the cause of treating Covid-19 infected patients.
In his words, “we are giving them another chance to look into our demands and address them as soon as possible, and we are optimistic that government will begin to address those demands and from there we hope that this kind of situation will never reoccur.”
“The truth is for the matter to be resolved once and for all, but we know that in life we might not always get all that we want, but what is important is the commitment from both parties. We also feel that sincerity on the part of the government is key at this time, so we urge Nigerians to mount pressure on the government to do the needful so that we do not go back to where are coming from again.” He added.
The NARD President who highlighted that doctors are like fish out of the water when they are not interacting with patients emphasised how happy they were to be going back to work, and ensuring a seamless work culture for everyone.
Another resident doctor of the Department of Community Medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr Oluwaseun Rotimi, who spoke to Prime Business Africa, said calling off the strike was a good development.
In his words, “the health system has suffered a lot of setbacks and challenges in the past few weeks, this is owing to the fact that resident doctors constitute a significant amount of the workforce in the health system, and I am happy we called off the strike because we would go back to work and try to make some amendments to the damages that have gone on in the past few weeks.”
“I am also happy because people generally can now access healthcare services and get speciality cares because resident doctors are specialists, so that is good news for the residents generally.”
“But for the resident doctors, the truth is that we had to call off the strike because the strike had gone on for too long, we considered the negative impacts it will have on our workers (resident doctors) and also the population at large.”
“We had to call off the strike in pain because we have lost a lot in the past few weeks, in terms of welfare, remuneration, salary etc. Government did not pay us for August and September being the month of the strike. They invoked and implemented the “no work, no pay” policy.”
“Part of the things we were agitating for such as the hazard allowance and Medical Residency Training Fund, withheld salaries and others, government is yet to do anything about them.”
Responding to the issue of brain drain, Dr Hassan noted that every sector in Nigeria was being affected but the worse hit is the medical profession.
“In fact, doctors’ nurses, medical practitioners leave the country almost every day in drones. It is sad but that is the reality. We know the factors that are promoting and aggravating this tendency for doctors and healthcare workers to leave, like the environment, working conditions, remuneration and absence of support from the government.”
“We feel if the government can address these issues, nobody will be interested in leaving. Sadly, where it can be helped, nobody wants to suffer or see his family suffer. Therefore, if you see where you will be appreciated for your skills, it will honestly be difficult to not go there which is the reason why most medical practitioners are jetting out of the country.” He added.
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