National Association of Resident doctors(NARD) said that the federal government had not been sincere with the promises it made during the negotiations held while the association was on an industrial action.
This was revealed during an interview granted by the association’s chairman, Oyo State chapter Dr Temitope Hussain at the epochal event of the Nigerian Medical Association’s Physician Week held at the University College Hospital, Ibadan.
Hussain lamented that many of the promises made by the FG have not been fulfilled and that it is quite disheartening that inspite of all the promises the government made, FG has still not been able to resolve the matters the association presented before it.
According to Hussain, “We just suspended our strike and some of the promises the government made has not been fulfilled.”
“For example, the MRTS that was said to have been paid, less than sixty percent of doctors have received the MRTS and it is very disheartening that inspite of all the promises the government made, they’ve still not been able to resolve the matters we presented before them.”
“So now as we speak, for instance the University college Hospital, about 200 of our members are still being owed salaries up to five months though they’ve been captured on the IPPIS platform, they’ve still not been paid and some of the matters such as hazard allowance have not been resolved. Though we’ve called off our strike in good fate, the Federal Government has not done the needful in acceding to the demands that we made.”
“We are still currently working and hoping that the federal government will do what they say they would do. We’re not happy but we’re still working, hopping and appealing that the government do the needful.”
“Our request are specific and they’ve no not been met. Out of all the things we requested, May be about one of them has been done. So we can confidently say that the government has not been sincere with us”.
While Speaking on the possibility of another industrial action by the association, Hussain made it known that the association only suspended the strike for six weeks in order to allow the government to attend to their requests and demands and that they hope that FG will do the needful before the expiration of the six weeks to forestall the possibility of another strike.
“When we suspended the strike, we said we are going to give the federal government six weeks and this is the second week, they’ve done one and a half out of about ten items. I hope they come forth to do the others in order to forestall any further industrial action”.
He also acknowledged the role of the Nigeria Medical Association in the suspension of the strike and in the pursuit to making sure that all the demands of NARD is duly and timely met.
“As we speak, NMA is still intervening on our behalf and still working with NARD to get the matters solved. Of course, We are hopeful as the NMA national chairman promised that the matters would be resolved and we are hopeful that we would get the results”, Hussain said.
