Resident doctors clamour for improved healthcare in Abia today.ng - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from today.ng Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Federal Government has accused the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) of playing with the lives of Nigerians who need them at this critical time.
Dr Chris Ngige, who is the Minister of Labour and Employment, made the allegation on Friday at the opening session of a meeting with the aggrieved doctors in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He warned the members of the union to stop what he described as toying with the lives of citizens in the name of pressing for better welfare.
According to the minister, neither NARD nor the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) is a trade union and many Nigerians have died as a result of the industrial action by the resident doctors.
As critics query Nigeria’s illusive search for COVID-19 vaccines with over N200b lifeline
The perception that the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Nigeria might have created millionaires who benefited from the scourge at the expense of the ordinary Nigerians may find meaning in the realisation that while Nigeria reportedly expended over N200 billion last year in the search of a vaccine for the pandemic, the country is still at the mercy of charities.
In fact, it took the intervention of COVAX facility and India’s resilient health sector to come to Nigeria’s rescue with a paltry 3.92 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines penultimate Tuesday, which is very inadequate for the country’s 200 million plus population.
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, yesterday urged the striking resident doctors to return to work.
He made the call in Abuja during a virtual news briefing to mark this year’s World Health Day.
“I call on our striking resident doctors to call off their strike and return to work as this is not a good time for such activities. House officers have started receiving their outstanding entitlements and we’re working assiduously to address other issues raised by the doctors,” he said.
Ngide said the theme of this year’s World Health Day, ‘Building a Fairer, Healthier World for Everyone’ was a reminded that access to healthcare was no longer to be taken as a privilege but as a human right.
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Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has vowed to continue its nationwide strike that has paralyzed public health care across the country for over a week.
This is in reaction to the federal government’s claim to have paid all the house officers by the end of Wednesday.
“The House Officers have started receiving their payments in the Federal Government teaching hospitals and federal medical centres across the federation,” Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Nigige said, on Wednesday.
He also claimed that the government has abolished benching in training as well as stopped the deduction of N15,000 per month from the salaries of house doctors for accommodation.