Doctors treating Covid-19 cases must join ongoing Strike – NARD insists
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has stated that doctors treating virus cases will join the ongoing nationwide indefinite strike.
The union says the strike is coming on the heels of the inability of the Federal Government to meet its yearnings in June this year.
NARD president, Aliyu Sokomba, said that the doctors demands include a pay rise, better welfare, and adequate facilities, union leaders said.
Sokomba said, “We have kicked off the strike today,” told AFP, adding that medics treating virus cases would join the action this time around.
“There will be no exemptions,” he said.
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Sokomba said long-standing issues such as provision of life insurance, a pay rise, payment of salary arrears as well as provision of adequate facilities for doctors were the reasons for the strike.
“We have arrears of 2014, 2015, 2016, salary shortfalls that were supposed to have been paid over six years ago, still pending,” he said.
“These are the issues we have and they appear not to have been addressed up till this day,” he said.
“It is an indefinite strike,” Sokomba said, adding that it would be called off only when the union’s demands were met.
The authorities fear any reduction in capacity could severely hamper its ability to tackle the pandemic as the number of cases continues to rise.
Daily Times reports that there was a staged week-long strike over welfare and inadequate protective kits in June but doctors treating virus cases remained on the job.
