‘Prolonged Keffi FMC doctors’ strike worrisome’

Stakeholders in Keffi, the host community to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Nasarawa State, have cried out about the prolonged strike by resident doctors who have been demanding for the implementation of Skipping. Members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) across the country have been on strike for months now to press […]

Stakeholders in Keffi, the host community to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Nasarawa State, have cried out about the prolonged strike by resident doctors who have been demanding for the implementation of Skipping.
Members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) across the country have been on strike for months now to press for the implementation of Skipping on Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), a welfare package which allows the striking doctors to benefit from salary grade ahead of their promotion.
The doctors in Keffi, who pioneered the strike action in the country have spent over five months off duty now, in what has grounded the tertiary health facility there, with many, including workers – one of them a medical doctor – dying for lack of care.
The stakeholders, operating under Keffi Development Foundation (KDF), last week, expressed concern over  the strike, and urged the federal government to intervene to address the devastating consequences on the people.
Lawal Maizabo,  Vice Chairman of KDF, who spoke to newsmen, said  patients  are dying  for want of healthcare, adding  concerned stakeholders including the emirate council have tried to resolve the industrial dispute, without a positive result.
KDF said further that the stakeholders after thorough investigations of  the matter understand that relevant authorities have not given the full nod for tertiary health facilities to go ahead and implement Skipping on CONMESS, and therefore urged the doctors to be compassionate to patients who are dying for no fault of theirs.
Daily Trust recalls that chief executives of federal tertiary health facilities in the country have urged the federal government to make supplementary provisions to accommodate the payment of a welfare package in Budget 2015.
The lingering strike by the doctors compelled the Committee of Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors to sit for a meeting, recently, with an outcome recommending the government to make budgetary provision for the welfare package, having acknowledged that Budget 2015 has no provision for the payment.