ational Association of Resident Doctors, NARD are matching ground for
the possible embarking on industrial action end of Septembers, unless
the Federal Government commences implementation of the integrated
payroll and personal information system or the union will not guarantee
industrial harmony.
At a media briefing after the 5days Annual General Meeting of NARD
and election of new exco held at Kano Grand Cental Hotel, Kano state,
the newly elected national president, NARD, Dr. Jibril Abdullahi said
that despite the apparent good nature of the payroll policy, there are
still octors and medical staff who have not been paid their salaries for
four months, saying despite the agreement and memorandum of
understanding the union signed with the FG.
The NARD President added the inadequate provision of budgetary
allocation for the training of specialist doctors in the country,
highlighting that Nigeria is a country of about 150 million people, “out
of which 90 percent cannot afford basic medical care”.
He requested the FG to respect and implement the agreement had in
July, 2012, involving high powered inter-ministerial discussion between
federal ministries of Finance, Commerce, Health and Labor as well as
representatives of medical professionals unions. He decried; “The FG has
not yet made the white paper out of the agreement to be available. We
want the paper to be available!”
NARD President explained further that his association demands that
the budgetary allocation for residency training should solidly be based
on the agreement, reiterating that they will not bargain on the
declaration “government must abide by it”.
He however warned; “The continuous casualisation of medical practice
by Lagos state government is unacceptable by the union and should be
stopped. The Lagos government has gradually turned the profession into
casual one, where doctors are employed on casual agreement and without
benefit. I called on FG to step in so as to avoid industrial disharmony.
Other issue he raised was the failure of Enugu state government to
implement the consolidated medical salary structure despite three years
of its commencement in the country, which he described as unacceptable
to the union.
Dr. Jibril also decried on the failure of the FG to understand that
to maintain harmony in a health care sector there is need to abide by
the best international practices, lamenting that FG is only willing to
adopt a structure where chaos will continue in the health sector.
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