Senate says striking doctors to account for death of patients

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

Residents doctors should be held responsible for the death of any patient that died while the strike action embarked upon by the doctors nationwide lasted.

Faulting members of Nigerian Association Resident Doctors (NARD) on insensitivity of the strike action, the Senate Committee on Health on Thursday lamented the untold hardship and effect such action will have on helpless patients.

Committee chairman, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe (APC Kwara Central) said all efforts by the National Assembly to avert the doctor’s ongoing strike were thwarted by the recalcitrant doctors.

Speaking at a public hearing at the National Assembly on Thursday, he said “we had a marathon meeting just before Easter on March 21st specifically and we agreed on all the issues that were raised by the resident doctors”.

Speaking further, he said three Germain issues were discussed which included the payment of salary to house officers which as at that time had been essentially been cleared. He wondered why the doctors embarked on a strike on the account of the salary.

“The second one was what they claimed to be paid to local resident doctors, which was an aberration where there was not supposed to be local but the government agreed to commence payment which has started to be done.

“Those are the two critical ones that were germane most of the other issues that were raised were not even issues within the purview of the federal government because they were issues of state governments that owed salaries or something”.

According to Oloriegbe, these are issues that relate to things that were thrashed in 2014, 2015 which was as, at that meeting, the Federal Ministry of Finance confirmed that a committee has been set up to look at the other aspects.

“So we are surprised that the resident doctors went on strike. However, we are not reneging, my counterparts in the house of Representatives are meeting with the resident doctors.”

Appealing to the striking doctors to go back to work, the committee chairman said “like I said, any single soul that dies as a result of that strike, it is in the hand of the doctors. I am a doctor myself. We took an oath to serve and save lives. On no circumstance through our action endanger any life to be lost due to our personal.

“We know as doctors we have to take care of our welfare but we have taken an oath to serve. I’m appealing to them that we should go back to work while negotiations and discussions will go on on outstanding issues.”

“The other thing I want to put on record is that the Nigerian Medical Association also wrote the Senate President and the letter had been referred to our committee and we have taken action on some of the other issues that are relevant to doctors like things on retirement.

“I want to assure NMA that we will give expeditious action to those issues.”