Resident Doctors suspend 10-day strike with conditions
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Wednesday suspended its strike with a condition in case the government fails to comply with the agreements reached with its members.
NARD President, Dr John Onyebueze, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, said that the National Executive Council of the Association took the decision to call off the strike after a careful consideration of the renegotiated agreement with the Federal Government.
Onyebueze said, “The National Executive Council of NARD met from 6 pm, Tuesday, 12th September to 12:15 am, Thursday, 14th September 2017 to review the status of our nationwide strike and the offer from the government in the renegotiated Memorandum of Terms of Settlement (MTS) with the government .
“After due consideration of the efforts by government and progress made in addressing the items on the notice of our ultimatum, and strike, as well as implementing the contents of the renegotiated MTS, NARD resolved to suspend her 10 days strike, and to reaccess the situation in two weeks at our AGM in Abuja.
“We sincerely thank the public, press and our families for their support during this period of the strike.”
Though most of their demands have not been met, one of our correspondents gathered that the doctors have been paid their arrears but decided to suspend the strike to enable all their members to receive alerts.
The resident doctors had on September 4 embarked on an indefinite strike over non-payment of salaries and welfare packages including their immediate enrollment in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) by the federal government.
Justifying the suspended strike, NARD Chairman, UCH Ibadan chapter, Dr.Segun Olaopa, said:” It is very legal for us to go on strike as they cannot be paying us half our salaries since 2014 and expect us not to demand it.
“The country is currently undergoing harsh economic crisis and it is affecting us too psychologically. How do you expect a psychological imbalanced doctor to treat patients especially in an unconducive environment?”
Idu Jude Abuja & Angela Onwuzoo Lagos
