National 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.

Source: http://leadership.ng/news/170913/strike-doctors-give-fg-ultimatum