By Asma’u Ahmad
The Association of Resident Doctors of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), has urged stakeholders to prevail on the Federal Government to meet demands of resident doctors to prevent further strikes.
President of LUTH chapter of the association, Dr. Adebayo Sekumade, made the plea at a news conference in Lagos.
The news conference was organised by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Lagos State chapter, to sensitise stakeholders about the doctors’ proposed strike, if the government refused to meet their demands.
Dr. Sekumade urged government to address all outstanding issues that could potentially affect effective healthcare delivery in the nation’s health institutions.
Newsmen report that NARD had on December 19 gave the Federal Government up to January 2 to implement the National Health Act 2014 and address other demands of the association.
The national body of the association had directed its members to wear black ward coats and conduct rallies at the expiration of the initial ultimatum given to the Federal Government on January 2.
According to him, some of the issues include non-release of a uniform template for residency training in Nigeria which has been ongoing for several years.
“Non-release of this template has contributed significantly to the level of industrial disharmony in the health sector. It causes selective application and misapplication of the rules by different hospital managements.
“A case in point is the recent letter of appointment given to the new resident doctors in LUTH which contained several anti-labour clauses.
“The absurdity of the unjust and unfair policy of payment of fractional salaries to only doctors in the Federal and State tertiary health institutions has continued since December, 2013,” he said.
In his remarks, President of the association at Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Dr. Kenneth Uwajeh said that the news conference was to let the stakeholders prevail on the government avert the proposed strike.
“Doctors are not desirous of strike, unfortunately, we are not immune to illnesses, and we also have families who require medical care. We also suffer consequences from this action, that is why we are calling on Nigerians to intervene to prevent the coming strike,” he said.
