Resident doctors threaten strike over job and pay cuts

The Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has given a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to immediately implement agreements reached between both sides to improve the health sector or risk an indefinite strike action.

The Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has given a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to immediately implement agreements reached between both sides to improve the health sector or risk an indefinite strike action.

The ultimatum was given by NARD in Bauchi at the end of its 2020 Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) tagged ‘Health Inequalities and Social Determinants of Health in Nigeria lamenting the poor working condition of the members across the country.

National President of NARD, Dr Sokomba Aliyu who read the communique issued at the end of the OGM, decried that some of its members were intimidated, harassed and maltreated in Lagos and Kaduna states and the FCT in the cause of performing their professional activities, “We hereby give the government a 14 days ultimatum to meet all of our demands to avoid an indefinite and total strike action by the Resident Doctors across the country.”

Resident doctors have cited a number of complaints recently, the association said.

Some doctors were sacked by authorities at Jos University Teaching Hospital in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

And the government in Kaduna slashes worker salaries by 25%, bringing “untold hardship to them and their families”, Aliyu said.

NARD has demanded that all doctors sacked in Plateau be recalled immediately and that Kaduna government reinstate the cut salaries of workers.

Aliyu said NARD is also demanding for supply of Personal Protective Equipment and other consumables to all health facilities across the country to enable the health workers to perform their professional services with adequate and maximum protection.