Federal government has advised striking members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to resume their duties.
This was the appeal of the minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, on Thursday, August 12, in Abuja to resident doctors.
Ehanire noted that Nigeria is the only country in the world in which doctors go on industrial action in the midst of a global pandemic,
The minister added that the ‘No Work, No Pay’ rule is not a punitive measure but a provision of the Internal Labour Organisation (ILO).
He wondered why medical practitioners expect to get their salaries from taxpayers’ money while they are at home on strike,
“We have said openly that this is not a good time for doctors to go on strike. We are having a strike for the third time this year; that is not good.
“Every country who has a difficult situation at this time should understand that responsibility is on all of us. If you have any problem, any grudges, let’s talk about it.”
Meanwhile, it was reported that the ongoing resident doctors’ strike would continue as the intervention by the house of representatives on the dispute between the government and the NARD after two days marathon meetings with relevant stakeholders in the health sector hit a deadlock.
The House committee on healthcare services on Tuesday, August 10, failed to convince the resident doctors in calling off the ongoing industrial action across the country. R
The chairman of the house committee on healthcare services, Tanko Sununu, said the stakeholders, including the federal ministries of health; finance, budget and national planning; labour, employment and productivity; and the office of the head of civil service of the federation, had agreed to address some of the issues.
