THE Federal Government has urged the medical doctors in the country, especially those in government employment, to desist from using strike actions to seek improved working conditions.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Engineer Babachir David Lawal who stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, stressed that they might lose public sympathy in the process, because many avoidable deaths were recorded during such strikes.
He assured them that the federal government within limited resources is desirous of improving the working environment of government medical institutions and that gradually, improvements would soon be seen in hospitals across the country.
A statement by the Director, Press, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Bolaji Adebiyi, said SGF was speaking in his office, when he received in audience executives of the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD).
He also explained that doctors in Federal Medical Centre, Owerri are not being victimized but that the problem was that they demanded that the Chief Medical Director should be sacked, which was abnormal, since they did not have the authority to make such decision.
Rather, he said they should have made their grievances known to the government for action, pointing out that government would look into the legitimate demands of the doctors and urge them on their part, to consider what they could also sacrifice to the country in this period of national rebirth.
The President of NARD, Dr. John Onyebueze, who led the delegation, raised a number of challenges confronting the association.
These include poor funding of hospitals; lack of critical equipment; the issue of improved salary structure; pension matters and the plight of their colleagues in Federal Medical Center, Owerri.
He appealed that the SGF should use his good offices to ensure that government addresses these challenges.
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