...To get all news updates, Join our WhatsApp Group (Click Here)
Connect with us on Linkedin (Click Here)
The Federal Capital Territory chapter of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has defended its decision to embark on a seven-day warning strike, citing poor welfare, lack of recruitment, and neglect of critical health needs in the territory.
At a press conference on Monday, the FCT NARD Chairman, Dr. George Ebong, lamented the working conditions faced by doctors in the capital city, describing them as deplorable and life-threatening.
“We lost a colleague to a snakebite about two years ago, on Abaji and then we have some that suffer snakebites and we do not even have anti-venom,” he said.
Ebong accused the authorities of ignoring repeated calls to address the situation, stressing that doctors were being stretched beyond their limits.
“When we say we need our working conditions to be better, they refuse to listen, they have refused to employ, they have refused to pay. They have refused to convert our fellow colleagues who have passed their part 2,” he stated.
According to him, the government has also failed to settle allowances and replace manpower lost through retirements, deaths, and mass migration abroad.
“They have refused to pay the petty money Hazard allowance arrears. We are getting demolarised, we cannot continue to work in this pattern. If we continue to work in this pattern, none of us will be alive anymore, so we have to do the needful,” he warned.
Explaining the decision to proceed on industrial action, Ebong added:
“The needful is what we are doing this morning for seven days. Let me start by saying for a long time, we have not had employment in FCTA since 2011. Those that have retired have not been replaced, those that have left the country due to Japa syndrome have not been replaced.”
He further highlighted the overwhelming workload on doctors in the FCT: “Those that died have not been replaced. One doctor keep doing what five to six doctors will do. A doctor will see up to thirty to fourty patients. And then he/she is going to go to do a call for another two days.”
The FCT NARD insisted that the strike action was necessary to draw urgent attention to the plight of doctors and to prevent further collapse of healthcare delivery in the territory.
Earlier, SaharaReporters reported that Resident doctors in the Federal Capital Territory commenced a seven-day warning strike, plunging Abuja hospitals deeper into crisis amid what they described as the government’s long-standing neglect of the health sector.
In a communique signed by the Association of Resident Doctors, FCT chapter (ARD-FCT), its President, Dr. George Ebong, alongside other executives, accused the authorities of running the system aground and forcing doctors to work under inhumane conditions.
They gave the FCT administration one week to begin genuine reforms, warning that failure to act would lead to further escalation.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Isaq Salako, attempted to downplay the crisis, insisting that talks with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) were “making progress.”
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, he admitted that about 40 per cent of the 2025 residency training allowance was still unpaid, but claimed discussions were ongoing.
...To get all news updates, Join our WhatsApp Group (Click Here)
Connect with us on Linkedin (Click Here)
