Resident doctors throughout the country are bracing up for a nationwide strike due to long disaffection with the government.
The National Association of Resident Doctors has asked the federal and state governments to resolve all outstanding issues in the health sector before September 30 or face an industrial action by its members, Punch reports.
The newly-elected President of the association, Dr. John Onyebueze, announced the ultimatum at the end of NARD’s 26th Annual General Meeting in Enugu.
The resident doctors flayed government at all levels over what it described as the poor state of health care delivery in the country.
Onyebueze, who addressed journalists at the end of the meeting, said the current state of public health care delivery in the country was ‘pitiable.’
Demanding an immediate implementation of pending agreements reached between the government and health workers, he declared that the association “cannot guarantee industrial harmony in the health sector if this persists beyond the payment of September salaries.”
Onyebueze said the association was demanding an immediate upgrade of infrastructure in teaching hospitals, urgent action against poliomyelitis and Lassa fever, as well as the immediate release and implementation of the report on the residency training programme.
He added that the association was unhappy with the disruption of the structure of the residency programme by the chief medical directors of teaching hospitals.
Listing the grievances of the resident doctors, he added, “Are you talking about the rickety beds in the accident and emergency wards?
“We do not even have gloves and emergency tools. We do not have pens to write and make prescriptions. We are saying that this thing must not continue.”