Strike: Resident Doctors, FG meeting ends in deadlock

By Ihesiulo Grace

17 June 2020

Featured

...Doctors storm out of parley as FG threatens sack

…CMD urges resident doctors to shelve strike

The meeting between the striking National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and the Federal Government, on Tuesday, ended in a deadlock just as the doctors worked out of the negotiations citing government’s lack of commitment to their demands as the reason.

Consequently, the Minister Health, Ehanire Osagie, has directed all Medical Directors nationwide to open a register and take note of any doctor who fails to resume duty tomorrow (today) morning before 12 noon, noting that the government has made adequate measures to deal with the situation as it arises.

Trouble started when both parties embarked on a recess around 4pm to reconvene by 6pm.

The Daily Times observed that whereas the government team comprising of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Health and the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo returned to the meeting venue few minutes after six, there was no sight of the Doctors until about an hour later when the NARD President, Aliyu Sokomba, arrived but stormed out of the venue almost immediately.

When approached by Journalists to enquire why its members were not back as agreed, he said: “I am not coming back, others may come back.

All their promises have not materialised into positive outcomes and we have assured the Minister of Labour and Employment that once we are able to get a tangible outcome, a notice of meeting shall be conveyed within 24 hours to review the industrial action.”

Meanwhile, the Minister Health while criticising the action of the doctors, said that Nigeria is the only country where health practitioners have decided to embark on strike amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In other countries, we have seen that health workers are volunteering to serve. People who have retired are coming out of retirement to serve, nurses and doctors are putting in all they can.

I do suspect that our country unfortunately is the first country where doctors have embarked on strike in the middle of this pandemic.

“We in the Ministry of Health have tried very hard to have reasonable discussions, mediated by the members of the National Assembly including the Speaker himself including the Chairmen of the Committees of Health and of course the mediation that have gone on since 11am with the Ministers of Labour and Employment to try and find a reasonable amicable settlement.

“We all know that health is a critical area and under these circumstances, the health workforce is an essential service. We have pleaded and done everything to meet the demands the resident doctors have put on table.

A good number of them have merits, we are not denying that but the government has also been down double to see that requests they make are attended to and sometimes, under great pressure.

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“We as the Ministry of Health have an obligation to protect the lives of Nigerians. We are not going to allow our hospitals to be followed nor our patients to be abandoned. The government has an obligation to support the need of everybody to keep their health and life.

“The Resident Doctors have told us that they are not going to return to work very soon until certain other conditions are met and we are not sure that they will not continue extending the goal post everytime we try to reach a solution.

Therefore, certain steps need to be taken to protect the citizens most especially those in the hospital, those that need emergency services and those at the intensive care of COVID-19.

“This evening, the Ministry of Health will issue a directive to all Medical Directors and Chief Medical Directors of all federal hospitals and medical institutions in the country to open up a register tomorrow (today) morning by 7am and record all those that come to work. All those who do not come to work will be noted down and further actions will follow that.

“Those who report to work will be understood to still be in service. Immediately the register closes by 12noon, we will be able to know those who have reported for work and not.”

Earlier, Dr. Ngige had expressed optimism that after the meeting, NARD would talk to their affiliate branches and call off the industrial action.

“I don’t want to go into the integrity of the industrial action whether you’re essential services or not, whether you are supposed to go on strike or not, I will only commend you and say go and read your Labour act and also the ILO regulations on essential services workers of which I know you’re one.”

On his part, Sokomba said “the reason for industrial action dates as far back as 2014, which some of them came up later in 2017 and recently presented in August last year to the Speaker of the National Assembly”.

According to him, the most important issue that bothers resident doctors to go on strike includes the issue of protection, security and safety of doctors, which is the issue of life insurance.

Meanwhile, the Chief Medical Director of Central Hospital, Warri, Dr. Paul Okunbor, has appealed to the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD), to shelve its ongoing nationwide strike.

Okunbor made the appealed on Tuesday in Warri, while reacting to the industrial action embarked upon by the doctors.

He, however, appealed to the government to do the needful by implementing the demands of the aggrieved doctors.

The CMD described the demands of the resident doctors as genuine.

“The doctors have the right to make the demands, especially when the issues are in the front burner and the government is expected to have addressed them.

“However, the timing is not good because we are dealing with a pandemic. We need all hands on deck, including critical stakeholders like the resident doctors, who are in the frontlines to deal with this COVID-19.

“Their demands are legitimate but we can only appeal to them to consider the crisis that is on ground. They should shelve the strike and give the government some time to address their demands,’’ Okubor said.