Health care services across the country were disrupted yesterday as 12,000 doctors, under the umbrella of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), began a five-day nationwide warning strike.
The striking health personnel are part of the country’s 56,000 registered doctors.
Resident doctors are medical school graduates training as specialists. They dominate the emergency wards of hospitals in Nigeria and are crucial to quality health care delivery nationwide.
The action, which began at 8am, followed the expiration of a 24-hour ultimatum issued to the federal government to meet its outstanding demands. The ultimatum came after an earlier 10-day deadline, which lapsed on September 10 without resolution.
The association confirmed the commencement of the strike in a message titled: “Declaration of strike action” and signed by the secretary-general of the NARD, Dr Oluwasola Odunbaku yesterday.
“Good morning NEC members, thank you all for your continued cooperation and understanding. As clearly stated in our earlier communique, the strike is scheduled to commence at 8:00am today (Friday).
“All centre leaderships are expected to guide their members accordingly. Further updates will be communicated to NEC members in due course,” he stated.
Also, the president of the association, Tope Osundare said: “Unfortunately, the minimum demands were not met within the given extension of the 24-hour period and the warning strike commenced this morning as directed by the NEC of the association.”
The doctors are demanding an immediate payment of the outstanding 2025 Medical Residency Training Fund, settlement of five months of arrears from the 25–35 per cent Consolidated Medical Salary Structure review and other long-standing salary backlogs.
Others are the payment of the 2024 accoutrement allowance arrears, prompt disbursement of specialist allowances and restoration of the recognition of the West African postgraduate membership certificates.
They also called on the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria to issue membership certificates to all deserving candidates, implement the 2024 CONMESS, resolve outstanding welfare issues in Kaduna State and address the plight of resident doctors at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso.
Weekend Trust reports that units such as operating rooms, emergency departments, intensive care units (ICUs), wards, specialised clinics, diagnostic imaging and laboratories in district hospitals and primary health care centres across the country are affected by the industrial action.
In a chat with our correspondent, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Dr Pokop W. Bupwatda, called for continuous dialogue between government and the resident doctors in order to avert disruption of services in the health sector.
Dr Bupwatda emphasised that engagement remained the only sustainable path to resolving disputes.
The CMD acknowledged that doctors have genuine concerns, but stressed that it was impossible for the government to meet all their demands at once.