FG Waits For Us To Begin Strike Before Calling For Negotiation – Resident Doctors

The President of the Association of Resident Doctors at the National Hospital in Abuja, Akanimo Ebong, said that the federal government usually do no negotiate with them, until they embark on strike action.

Featuring on the Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Ebong explained that the association had suspended its planned strike action in April to allow for negotiations with the government.

Advertisement

Ebong, however, explained that since the strike was called off in April, nothing had been done toward implementation of the agreement it entered into with the government for increment of budgetary allocation to the health sector from the miserly 4 percent of the total budget.

“Usually there is no negotiation done, until we go on a strike.

“We have resumed our strike today. We never called it off, we only suspended it to give time for negotiations.

“But since we called off the strike on April 10, barely nothing has been done.

Advertisement

“When we are back at it, you know we’ve given a lot of time; we’ve tried to negotiate, we’ve tried to make the system work. But unfortunately, we are here again,” he said.

Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, National President of the association had made similar submission on Saturday.

He had decried that only four percent of the total budget is being allocated to the health sector, while over 20 percent is spent salaries for public servants.

Uyilawa also revealed that out of 19 families of medical doctors who died while treating COVID-19 patients, only one had received the death-in-service insurance which was promised by the government.

Among the resident doctors’ demands is the immediate withdrawal of a circular removing ‘House Officers’ from the scheme of service.

Leave a comment

Advertisement