.As FG threaten to employ ‘ad hoc’ staff
Doctors, under the auspices of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), yesterday began a five-day warning strike to demand better conditions, leading to health care being shut for many patients in public hospitals.
This is even as the Federal Government threatened to use the salaries of the striking physicians to employ “ad hoc” doctors.
The strike follows the government’s refusal to increase doctors’ salaries and pay arrears owed some NARD members as well as to invest more in hospitals to check medical tourism championed by President Muhammadu Buhari himself, and attendant foreign exchange losses to Nigeria.
The aggrieved doctors had on Tuesday warned the Federal Government to meet their demands before the May 29 handover.
However, NARD President, Dr. Innocent Orji, told the Associated Press (AP) that “We have not seen any positive sign from the government,” since the Association declared its intent to go on strike in April.
“The government has not called us to the negotiation table. Instead, what we have been getting are threats upon threats,” he said, adding that the warning strike could be extended if talks with the government fail to improve.
At a news conference in Abuja, on Tuesday, Orji noted that the resident doctors had already declared a five-day warning strike from today, as the two-week ultimatum earlier issued to the federal government expired on May 13 without any action.
“Regrettably, these issues have remained unresolved in spite of several attempts by NARD to get the government to resolve them,” Orji said.
“We call on the federal government to address the issues raised before the May 29 handover date as further industrial harmony cannot be guaranteed after the warning strike,” he warned.
Orji, who decried the government’s indifference to their demands, said such an action shows lack of interest in the wellbeing of Nigerians.
The government has not called us to the negotiation table. Instead, what we have been getting are threats upon threats.
He again listed the doctors demand to include:
- Immediate increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) to 200 per cent of the gross salary of doctors and allowances;
- Commencement of payment of all salary and other arrears owed members, including 2014, 2015 and 2016 salary arrears, as well as arrears of the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage;
- Immediate massive recruitment of clinical staff in hospitals and the abolishment of bureaucratic limitations to the immediate replacement of doctors and nurses who left the system;
- Immediate infrastructural development in hospitals with the subsequent allocation of at least 15% of budgetary provisions to health, in line with the Abuja Declaration of 2001;
- Immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) in line with the agreements reached at the 2023 stakeholders’ meeting; and,
- The immediate implementation of CONMESS, domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act (MRTA), and review of hazard allowance by all the state governments and private tertiary health institutions.
Orji said NARD would review the progress made during and after the strike at the ordinary general meeting slated for the next two weeks to decide the next line of action, while expressing readiness to negotiate with the government to resolve the lingering disputes.
The Nigeria Medical Association was already negotiating with the federal ministry of health, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission and the Presidential Committee on Salaries on a pay rise for doctors.
Ad hoc doctors
Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, who is also a medical doctor, warned that the health minister would instruct the teaching hospitals to employ doctors for those five days, “and they will use the money of the people who went on strike to pay the ad hoc doctors.”
Ngige insisted “That is the ILO principles at decent work, especially for those rendering essential services. Lives should be protected. One of my sons is a resident doctor. I will advise him to go to work and sign the attendance register.”
On one of the doctors’ demands, he argued that the Federal Government lacks the powers to compel the states to domesticate the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF).
According to him, the federal and state governments could legislate on the matter since health is on the residual list.
Regarding the immediate payment of the MRTF to NARD members, Ngige said this was appropriated in the 2023 budget but has not been released, as the 2022 budget is still running.
He denied the doctors’ claim that the government did not pay them minimum wage consequential adjustment arrears, saying that the adjustment benefited all workers in the education and health sectors and even the defence agencies.
The Minister also argued that it is wrong for the doctors to declare a nationwide strike because some states owe their members, as the federal government cannot dabble into the issue.
He equally advised the doctors to refrain from discussing a 200% pay rise, as it was not feasible.
“Besides all the government has done for doctors and other workers in the health sector, such as upward review of hazard allowances, the Nigeria Medical Association was already negotiating with the federal ministry of health, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission and the Presidential Committee on Salaries on a pay rise for doctors,” he added.
Regarding the bill before the National Assembly to bond doctors for five years, Ngige insisted that the federal government, as the executive arm, cannot intervene since it is a private member’s bill. He concluded that “It is incongruous for student doctors to embark on strike when consultants training them were already negotiating with the federal government.”
