•Says FG owes health workers N38 billion allocation
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has listed 19 demands which it described as minimum expectations necessary to avoid a complete and indefinite national strike that will begin on Saturday.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the President, Dr. Muhammad Suleiman, stated this on Monday in Abuja at a press conference while presenting the resolutions of the extraordinary meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of NARD.
The meeting came after the expiration of his 30-day ultimatum to the federal government.
He said the association had been patient for too long in the face of government inaction, warning that doctors had already begun ward visits and patient handovers ahead of the planned strike.
According to him, pending payments and social issues affect not only resident doctors but all categories of healthcare professionals, including administrative staff.
Suleiman said the government currently owes doctors and other health workers across the country an estimated N38 billion in accumulated allowances, some of which date back more than 10 years.
He said: “There are subsidies of more than two years, some of 18 months, seven months, four months and even 10 years. The basic salary of doctors in this country has also not been revised for 16 years.”
He noted that the association had suspended a five-day warning strike in September and had extended its previous ultimatum by 30 days to allow the government to address the demands, but that the grace period had since passed without any significant action being taken.
“The Federal Government has not demonstrated the necessary political will to address the legitimate concerns of Nigerian resident doctors,” he said.
Suleiman explained that the 19-point demand presented by NARD represents the minimum action expected from the government to avoid a total collapse of service delivery in the country’s public health system.
Among the demands, he said, is the immediate payment of outstanding arrears of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) of 25-35 percent and equipment subsidy for 2024 to doctors, as well as other outstanding financial entitlements owed to healthcare workers.
The NEC also demanded the immediate reinstatement of five resident doctors unfairly dismissed from the Federal University Hospital, Lokoja, with full payment of all outstanding salaries and benefits during the period of their dismissal.
He said the association further asked the Federal Ministry of Health and Welfare to develop and implement a humane “working hours policy” for doctors in line with international best practices to safeguard both the well-being of doctors and the safety of patients.
The NEC urged the government to give hospital chief executives greater autonomy to employ and replace doctors leaving the system by immediately implementing the one-for-one replacement policy, to reduce excessive workload and burnout.
He also demanded urgent improvement and maintenance of medical infrastructure and equipment in all health centers in the country to improve the quality of service delivery and training of resident doctors.
Suleiman said NARD demanded immediate commencement of specialist subsidy payments to all doctors, inclusion of medical and dental officers in the civil service scheme with full rights and correction of all placements of entry-level doctors.
He said the CNE also called for the decentralization of promotion processes, the payment of arrears resulting from those corrections and the accelerated conclusion of the Collective Agreement Committee’s work on the long-awaited review of CONMESS and other professional assignments.
“The NEC further requires the publication and immediate implementation of corrected tables of professional allowances and a clear application of the relativity between the CONMESS and CONHESS salary structures,” he added.
Other notable issues include payment of accumulated promotion arrears owed to medical officers, reversal of the practice of creating consultant cadres for non-medical staff and abolition of casualization of doctors, insisting that all locum staff must be regularized in accordance with public service norms.
Suleiman also noted that the association demands the uniform implementation of all CONMESS circulars in federal, state and private health institutions, and the immediate settlement of salary arrears owed to doctors in various centers.
He said NARD was also insisting on the immediate implementation of special pension benefits as earlier agreed between the Federal Government and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
Following the government’s failure to meet these demands, Suleiman said: “NARD hereby declares a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike commencing at 12:00 am on Saturday. All resident doctors in federal and state tertiary health institutions across the country must withdraw their services completely and indefinitely until the federal government and the affected state governments demonstrate genuine commitment to address our demands,” he added.
The NARD President appealed to President Bola Tinubu to personally intervene to prevent the strike and address the persistent problems affecting doctors and the healthcare sector.
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