Commonwealth troubled by sack of 16,000 striking resident doctors
The Commonwealth Medical Association has criticized stalled moves by the federal government to sack some 16,000 resident doctors who were on strike. In a statement on Wednesday, Dr Osahon Enabulele, Vice President of CMA, called the federal government’s moves to break the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) an “ill-advised labour dispute management approach” […]
The Commonwealth Medical Association has criticized stalled moves by the federal government to sack some 16,000 resident doctors who were on strike.
In a statement on Wednesday, Dr Osahon Enabulele, Vice President of CMA, called the federal government’s moves to break the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) an “ill-advised labour dispute management approach” capable of worsening challenges in the heatlh sector.
“I am most troubled by the use of an extreme and unwarranted strong arm tactics by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health over NARD’s expression of her legitimate demands,” said Enabulele.
A former president of the Nigerian Medical Association, Enabulele led negotiations that secured some of the agreements reached with the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2013 for which enabling circulars were issued about 30 months ago.
“I find it very disturbing that some of these signed agreements are yet to be implemented, and therefore still a source of contestation and recurring disputes,” he lamented.
The ministry has since rescinded its circular calling for hospital managements to replace striking resident doctors, whom it said flouted public-service rules for being absent from residency programmes without authorisation.