The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has extended an already expired ultimatum issued to the Federal government by two weeks, effective Wednesday, July 5th.
The doctors stated in a communique issued at the end of the extraordinary National Executive Council (E-NEC) Meeting, signed by the NARD President, Dr Emeka Innocent, Secretary General, Chikezie Kelechi, and Publicity Secretary, Dr Umar Musa, that if all of its demands are not met by the 19th of July 2023, it cannot guarantee industrial harmony in the Health Sector nationwide.
NARD-NEC noted with disappointment that it has now been seven weeks since the end of the Association’s five-day warning strike action to press home her demands and that the resolutions of the conciliatory meeting chaired by the then Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment have yet to be implemented, despite the set timelines for their implementation.
The NEC was also concerned that the circular on one-for-one replacement of clinical staff who had left the country’s various tertiary hospitals had yet to be released. The NEC recalled that the conciliatory meeting agreed that the Office of the Federation’s Head of Civil Service would release the implementation guideline on or before June 5th, 2023, for transmission to Tertiary Hospitals for implementation, but that nothing had happened as of yet.
As a result, the NARD National Executive Council (NEC) demanded that the 2023 MRTF be paid immediately in accordance with various agreements reached with the government.
The NEC also demanded that the government pay all outstanding arrears owed to our members, including the hazard allowance and skipping arrears of 2014-2016, as well as the arrears of consequential adjustment of minimum wage, as there is no justification for continuing to owe these arrears and allowances.
We demand the immediate release and the implementation of the guidelines on one-for-one replacement of clinical staff to cushion the effect of the massive manpower shortage in our various hospitals nationwide.
NEC calls on the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to discontinue the downgrading of the membership certificate issued by the West African Postgraduate Medical and Surgical colleges as this is not obtainable in other parts of West Africa where these same certificates are issued.
NEC demands the immediate payment of all Salary Arrears, implementation of the CONMESS salary structure and new Hazard Allowance and domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act and payment of the Medical Residency Training Fund to our members in the State Tertiary Health Institutions nationwide.
They insist on the immediate implementation of a minimum of 200% increase in the CONMESS salary structure and an upward review of the associated allowances, as requested in her previous letters on the subject because the current economic realities in the country do not justify continuing to pay CONMESS as it is or any increment less than the 200% as demanded.