President Goodluck Jonathan
has approved the sack of
doctors across federal hospitals in
Nigeria, citing the current
challenges facing the health sector
as the reason for the action. The doctors under
the auspices of the Nigerian Medical Association
(NMA) had embarked on a strike to press home their
demand for an improvement in their welfare on July 1
and several attempts to resolve the issue have ended
in a stalemate.
The government had earlier accused the doctors of
neglecting their oath to protect lives and continue to
turn down the request to suspend the strike,
particularly during the outbreak of the deadly Ebola
virus and the ongoing insurgency in some parts of
the country.
In a letter signed by Honourable L. N. Awute, a
permanent secretary in the ministry of health, the
president ordered that the action should take
immediate effect. “President Goodluck Jonathan has
suspended the residency training programme for
doctors in Nigeria indefinitely for the purposes of
appraising the challenges facing the health sector,”
read the letter.
“In line with the above, the Honourable Minister has
directed that you issue letters of termination of
Residency Training appointment to the affected
Resident Doctors in your Hospital immediately. “The
Board of Management is to take all necessary
measures to immediately restore full medical
services in your hospital. Note however this is
without prejudice to the employment of Locum
Physicians on six months renewable contract tied to
productivity and good behavior.
” In an interview with TheCable, one of the affected
doctors condemned the development, sating that it
is an indication that government does not know its
priority.
“The federal government should have asked the
government of Lagos state that tried toeing that
lane, the end result of such action,” she said. “Simply
because we demanded for our rights they are
attempting to intimidate us. Anyway, let us see who
blinks first.
” A source told TheCable that the federal government
had directed that local doctors and doctors in military
hospitals should be employed pending the time that
the doctors are replaced.
SOURCE: The Cable