The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has called on the Federal Government to look towards increasing the budgetary allocation of the health sector from the subsisting 5 per cent in the 2022 budget to a figure closer to 15 per cent as recommended in the 2001 Abuja declaration for health financing in Africa.
NARD maintained that this will enable more employment in the sector, improved welfare and service conditions for health workers, and also an upgrade of health facilities and equipment in institutions across the country.
NARD in a communique at the end of the National Executive Council Meeting and Scientific Conference signed by the Its President, Dare Godiya Ishaya, Secretary-General, Dr Suleiman Abiodun Isma’il, and Publicity & Social Secretary, Dr Yusuf Alfa, also urged the Federal Government to take steps towards curtailing medical brain drain as the NEC lamented the acute manpower shortage in most tertiary health institutions occasioned by the ongoing massive medical brain drain and the attendant burnout effects on its members.
NARD’s National Executive Council also noted with dismay the resolution of the National Council on Establishment (NCE) which upheld the removal of House Officers from the scheme of service and reiterated their resolve that the decision is erroneous and ought to be revised to conform to the standard best practices for junior doctors obtainable across the world.
The NEC noted that despite the abolishment of bench fee payment for Resident Doctors on extra-departmental and supernumerary postings, some Chief Medical Directors are yet to fully implement it.
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They also noted with dismay the slow pace of the Federal Ministry of Health in the payment of the salary Shortfalls of 2014 to 2016 to her members despite the existing evidence in support of the payment.
They also noted the non-payment of COVID-19 inducement allowance to some of her members in federal and most of her members in state tertiary institutions.
They observed with concerns the conditions of our members under different state governments’ employs, especially Abia, Imo, Ondo, and Ekiti State Governments who currently owe our members twenty-three
(23) months, ten (10) months, six (6) months, and three (3) months’ salary arrears respectively.
They also observed with great concern that the September 2021 salary of her members at Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH) was withheld by the Delta State Government, while September and October 2021 salaries of our members in Gombe State were also withheld by the Gombe State Government during the last NARD strike
They observed with serious concerns the poor response of most state governments in domesticating the Medical Residency Training Act of 2017 while commending states like Delta, Lagos, and Benue which have adopted the law and also commenced the payment of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) to our members in those states.
The NEC noted that the House of Representatives is planning a bill prohibiting health workers from going on strike to demand their rights.
“We maintained that the right to strike is a universal democratic right of all employees, regardless of where they are employed: private or public sector.
“Hence, this move is against the rights of a worker to express their grievances with peaceful negotiation and as a last resort, embarking on industrial action.
The NEC noted the profligate use of power by the Chief Medical Director of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH). Also, his deliberate refusal to abide by the provisions of the 2017 Medical Residency Training Act (MRTA) in the compilation and submission of the list of resident doctors eligible for the 2021 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF)
which is threatening industrial harmony at the institution.
NARD, however, urges the Federal Government to expedite action on the payment of omitted 2020 MRTF to its members before the 2021 fiscal year runs out in March 2022.
“It is also our desire that the payment of the 2022 MRTF be concluded before the March/April/May 2022 post-graduate examinations to enable the judicious use of these funds by our members.
“We send profuse gratitude and acknowledge the Governors of Delta, Benue and Lagos States for blazing the trail in the adoption/domestication of the 2017 Medical Residency Training Act (MRTA) and also payment of Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) to resident doctors in their states. We, therefore, call on other state Governors to replicate this achievement in their various states.
“We call on the Federal Government, the Nigerian Governor Forum, stakeholders, and well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Governors of Abia (23 months), Imo (10 months), Ondo (6 months), and Ekiti (3 months)
States to urgently pay arrears of salaries and allowances owed our members in the state tertiary health institutions as stated above, as this is becoming inhuman and embarrassing.
“We also appeal to the Governors of Delta (1 month) and Gombe (2 months) States to release the withheld salaries of our members in the respective states, so as to alleviate their sufferings.
“We urge the Honorable Minister for Health to call the Chief Medical Director of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) to order, as his inappropriate actions and inactions are threatening peace and industrial harmony at the institution.”
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