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Tag: doctors

  • PDP mocks Buhari for hiding under Education Summit which is virtual to secretly’ visit his doctors in London

    PDP mocks Buhari for hiding under Education Summit which is virtual to secretly’ visit his doctors in London

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it is appalling that President Muhammadu Buhari could deploy the nation’s resources to travel to London for the Global Education Summit on Financing Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 2021-2025 when the meeting is scheduled to be virtual.

    The PDP also berated the Buhari Presidency for “trying to hide his private appointment with his doctors under the virtual meeting apparently in a bid to launder his consistent failure to honour his pre-2015 campaign promise not to embark on medical tourism, if elected President”.

    In a communique by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party insisted that President Buhari has no justification to travel to far-away London since the meeting is a virtual meeting or for a medical checkup, which he could have done at home.

    While claiming that the present administration has wrecked the nation’s healthcare system, the PDP said the president’s action has confirmed the stand by the majority of Nigerians that “he is wasteful, thinks only about himself and cares less about millions of citizens, who do not have access to foreign medical treatment, but who are dying on a daily basis because the government has crippled our health sector”.

    According to the PDP, it is disheartening that while Mr. President is spending taxpayers’ money relishing the expertise of London doctors and the luxury of medical facilities in that country, millions of Nigerians are dying in decrepit medical facilities at home.

    “Moreover, is it not atrocious that Mr. President is more interested in going to London for a virtual education summit when hundreds of students, who ought to be beneficiaries of the meeting, are languishing in kidnappers’ dens, with the Buhari administration taking no concrete steps to rescue them and end incessant abduction of students in Nigeria?”‘ the communique read in part.

    The PDP was of the opinion that there is no way history will be kind with President Buhari, as he has always wished if he continues in his manner of thinking only about his needs at the expense of the generality of Nigerians.

    The party however urged Nigerians not to resign to despondency “in the face of such incompetent, selfish, and insensitive” Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, but to remain resilient in rallying on the platform of the PDP to rescue the nation from misrule.

  • UCH resident doctors suspend strike

    UCH resident doctors suspend strike

    University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan chapter of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), on Monday, suspended its 51-day-old strike.

    President of the association in UCH, Dr Temitope Hussein made this known in Ibadan that the decision was reached after some of their demands had been met.

    Hussein said that members of the association being owed had been paid their four months salary arrears, covering January to April.

    “We will continue to put pressure on government to make sure that May salary and subsequent ones are paid.

    “We will also continue to demand that members yet to be enrolled into Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) are captured,” he said.

    NAN reports that the association had, on May 1, embarked on indefinite strike owing to non-payment of salaries of 215 of its members.

    As of May 1 when the strike commenced, the concerned resident doctors were owed four months salary by the Federal Government.

    The association was also protesting non-enrolment of some of its members into IPPIS, which, it said, was affecting payment of their emoluments.

  • Resident doctors extend strike ultimatum by 2 weeks for FG, States to act

    Resident doctors extend strike ultimatum by 2 weeks for FG, States to act

    The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has extended its strike ultimatum by two weeks to let the Federal and State governments to address the issues of welfare of their members across the country.

    The extension is contained in a communiqué at the end of the association’s 41st Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) which held in Nnewi/Awka, Anambra, between May 25 and May 29.

    The communiqué was release by Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, National President of NARD, in the company of other members of the executive.

    It said that the association would resume a total strike action if its demands remained unattended to at the end of the period.

    It said that the strike was suspended following government’s promises as entailed in the Memorandum of Actions, signed at the instance of Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, on April 9.

    It said that the delays in payment of members on the GIFMIS platform for over four months had caused hardships for NARD members and urged the Federal Government to expedite action toward migrating members to IPPIS.

    NARD also expressed concerns about the conditions of their members in Abia and Imo who were currently owed salary arreas of 21 and seven months, respectively.

    “While the OGM notes the willingness of government to migrate members from the GIFMIS to the IPPIS platform, we decry the lackluster behaviour exhibited by heads of government parastatal agencies to achieving this.

    “Our members are still in agony because of these delays and some House Officers are still being owed up to two months salaries.

    “The OGM notes with dismay, the stale attitude of the Governors of Abia and Imo states and their appointees toward addressing the issues of payment of salaries for 21 months and seven months respectively.”

    NARD said that the national minimum wage consequential adjustment and salary shortfalls had not been paid and directed Chief Medical Directors to submit lists of affected institutions and personnel strength.

    The OGM frowned at the delay by Federal Government in sorting out the irregularities, following the payment of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) 2020.

    “We note that teaching hospitals are grossly understaffed, and this is necessitated by the ongoing deadly brain drain killing the nation’s health care system.

    “After extensive deliberations on all the issues affecting the welfare of our members and insincerity of government in fulfilling their promises, the OGM unanimously resolved that our ultimatum be extended by two weeks.

    “This will further give the Federal Government more time to resolve all issues, failure of which the association shall resume the suspended total and indefinite strike action, after critical appraisal in an emergency meeting.

    “We are unequivocal in assuring members of the public that the NARD is committed to the smooth running of the health sector.

    “However, we can only do so when our welfare is given the desired attention,” it added.

  • FG proposes 65 yrs retirement age for doctors, health workers

    FG proposes 65 yrs retirement age for doctors, health workers

    The Federal Government has proposed 65 years retirement age for doctors, health workers and 70 years for consultants in the country.

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige said this at a meeting between the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PSC) relevant Federal Government stakeholders, Health Sector Professional Associations and Trade Unions on Tuesday in Abuja.

    The meeting was called to discuss the Issue of Hazard Allowance and Retirement Age for Health Sector Workers in Government Health Establishments.

    Ngige, while addressing newsmen on the outcome of the meeting, said the proposal had become necessary to improve the conditions of service of Nigerian health workers in order to retain their services within the country.

    The minister also said the meeting had made progress and had ironed out issues on the permanent hazard allowance and retirement age for doctors and other health workers.

    According to Ngige, part of the measures to retain the health workers is giving them better conditions of service, including increase in hazard allowance and their retirement age.

    “We have taken their proposal. The government side will firm up its own proposal and we are reconvening June 1, so that we can have an agreed hazard allowance for health workers in Nigeria.

    “We also discussed the issue of retirement age for health workers, being that we want to keep our health workers here in Nigeria.

    ”A lot of people are coming here to poach and take away people we have trained at very great cost.

    ”It takes a lot of funds to train a medical doctor, nurse or even a laboratory technologist or physiotherapist. So, we want to retain them here,” he said.

    Ngige explained that they could be retained for a longer time by making their retirement age to get up to 65 for normal health workers and doctors and 70 years for consultants.

    The minister said in principle, the government agreed to the proposal of the health workers and to put up the necessary machinery in motion for its actualisation.

    He added that it was something that would not happen in one day. It has to go from the Council on Establishments to Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly, being something that needed legislation.

    ”We are making progress. The health workers are happy and we, in the government side are happy also. We need them to keep our health system alive.

    “Nobody in government is opposed to the proposal. It is a proposal that is realistic. It is a proposal that we all agreed to last year when COVID-19 erupted.

    ”Remember that we were even calling back people who are retired. We delayed retirement age by six months for health workers so that we can fight COVID-19 pandemic.

    “The pandemic is not yet over. Who knows what will happen tomorrow. We are not praying for any other pandemic but we have to be battle ready at all times, health-wise.

    “We have of course done a lot of stock up. We have rehabilitated a lot of health facilities and they are now in top form. We have molecular laboratories all over the place,” Ngige said.

    He also noted that each state had one, including isolation centres, Intensive Care Units, oxygen plants, storage facilities for drugs, vaccines among others.

    He also said the pandemic had its bad sides as it had woken up Nigeria from slumber in the health sector.

    The President of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Emmanuel Ujah and his counterpart of Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) Josiah Biobelemoye expressed optimism that they would reach an agreement to give Nigerians quality healthcare services.

    Others at the meeting were, the Minister of Heath, Dr Osagie Enahire, Director General of Budget Office, Dr Ben Akubueze, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Abdulaziz Mashi and his Labour and Employment counterpart, Peter Tarfa.

  • Doctors threaten fresh nationwide strike

    Doctors threaten fresh nationwide strike

    Members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) have asked the Federal Government to honour its agreement with the union.

    They warned that should the government fail to honour its agreement in the next four weeks, they would be forced to declare another indefinite nationwide industrial action.

    President of NARD, Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, gave the warning on behalf of his colleagues during a monitored programme on Channels Television on Monday.

    “We have been given a leap of faith to believe in the system and we hope and pray that the system does not fail us,” Okhuaihesuyi said.

    The doctor added, “If it fails us, we don’t have a choice but to call a meeting in the next four weeks, which is the timeline for this strike that we suspended.

    “If our demands are not met in four weeks’ time, I think it will go back to us going on indefinite strike again.”

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that members of the union had embarked on strike on April 1, but it was suspended after 10 days following a meeting with the government on Saturday.

    In their demands, they sought the payment of all salaries owed to all house officers, including March salaries, and payment of all salary arrears for their colleagues in all Federal (GIFMIS platform) and State Tertiary Health Institutions across the country, especially ASUTH, IMSUTH, and UNIMEDTH.

    They also called for an upward review of the current hazard allowance to 50 per cent of consolidated basic salaries of all health workers, as well as and payment of the outstanding COVID-19 inducement allowance, especially in state-owned-tertiary Institutions, among other issues raised.

    Giving an update on the progress made so far since the strike was suspended, Dr Okhuaihesuyi acknowledged that significant progress has been made.

    He said, “We have gained something significant, but it may not be enough to end the strike because as we speak, there is a meeting that is going to hold concerning the N5,000 hazard allowance today, and with other health workers on Wednesday.

    “For the members we lost to COVID-19 (17 members were lost), we have been able to reach an agreement that the doctors and health workers involved should be able to make claims so that they can benefit from the group insurance.”

    On the demand for the house officers’ payment, the NARD president noted that they have achieved at least about 75 – 80 per cent progress.

    He confirmed that about 239 house officers have been paid as of Monday morning, but there were some irregularities with the payment.

    “If we didn’t go on this strike, we will not be able to achieve the proposed review of hazard allowance; if we didn’t go on this strike, we won’t be able to have them to tell us that we should go and make a supplementary budget for those that have not been paid Medical Resident Training fund,” said Dr Okhuaihesuyi.

  • JUST IN: Resident doctors call off 10-day-old strike

    JUST IN: Resident doctors call off 10-day-old strike

    The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has called off the strike embarked on since April 1 by the medical doctors.

    The decision to end the strike followed an agreement reached with the government on Friday night.

    The strike was called off on Saturday evening after a virtual meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of NARD.

    President of NARD, Dr Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, confirmed the decision of NARD to called off the strike, which has paralyses medical activities at the government hospitals across the country.

    The director/senior technical assistant to the minister of health, Dr Chris Isokpunwu, described the development as good news and explained that the decision to suspend the strike was the product of fruitful negotiations between the federal government and the resident doctors.

    However, Okhuaihesuyi explained that some of the doctors’ demands that were met include the abolishment of bench fee by House Officers, those on GIFMIS to be paid and integrated into Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPIS) in the next one week and a promise to work on salary shortfall for House Officers within 48 hours.

    He however said that the strike was only suspended for four weeks and that the doctors may resume the strike after four weeks if government fails to meet all their demands.

    According to him, doctors working in isolation centres will be resuming work today while others will resume on Monday.RD had embarked on an indefinite strike on April 1 after the expiration of the 60-day ultimatum given to the federal government to meet their demands.

  • Doctors speak on calling off strike today after fresh meeting with FG

    Doctors speak on calling off strike today after fresh meeting with FG

    The National Association of Resident Doctors has said it may call off its strike on Saturday (today) after meeting with federal government representatives in Abuja.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that the meeting, which lasted for over six hours, sought to address area of concerns which led to the strike embarked upon by the doctors on April 1.

    NARD’s National President, Dr. Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, said the association is satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.

    He however said the association cannot call off the strike until consultations are made with its executive council.

    He added that the strike, hopefully, will be called off on Saturday.

    After the meeting, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said a five-person committee has been set up to look into some of the doctors’ demands.

    The committee includes NARD’s National President, Secretary-General of the Nigerian Medical Association, and one representative each from the Ministries of Labour and Health.

    The committee is expected to look at the non-payment of House Officers’ salaries within 72 hours and produce a valid list to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), through the Federal Ministry of Health.

    On the issue of salary shortfall of resident doctors from 2014 to 2016, Ngige said the meeting resolved that NARD and the Committee of Chief Medical Doctors should immediately submit a list of affected institutions and personnel strength, for it to be captured in the 2021 supplementary budget, with arrears from April 2019 to December 2019, as contained in the memorandum of action.

    Similarly, on the issue of hazard allowance, the Minister directed that NARD come up with a position paper which should be submitted at the meeting between the Presidential Committee on Salaries, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, the Nigeria Medical Association, and the Joint Health Sector Union on April 14 at the Federal Ministry of Labour.

    Other issues the meeting considered are abolishment of the bench fees, residency training allowance, group life insurance payment and payment of residents on GIFMIS platform.

  • FG, resident doctors meet today over strike

    FG, resident doctors meet today over strike

    The Federal Government will today(Friday) hold another meeting with the leadership of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) over its nationwide strike.

    The government will hope to convince the doctors to put – off the strike, which has paralysed activities in government- owned hospitals.

    Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment announced the meeting in a text on Thursday.

    The meeting will hold at the conference room of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige by 3pm.

    “The Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige will be meeting with Executive of the National Association of Resident Doctors and Representatives of the Federal Government,” the message said.

    The leadership of NARD has remained adamant despite the government paying arrears of medical doctors who are mostly House Officers.

    But in a communiqué on Thursday, the NARD described the statement credited to Dr. Ngige as “spurious misinformation.”

    Admitting that some house officers have been paid, it said many of them are yet to be paid.

    Besides, it alleged the payment was marred by irregularities.

    The association noted the strike became imperative when it noticed the Ministry of Health was not interested in any form of settlement to avert the strike.

    It said the only positive result from the conciliatory meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment was abolition of the exorbitant bench fees being paid by NARD members on outside postings in all training institutions across the country.

    “This”, it said, “is however not yet backed by a circular.”

    The communiqué reads: “All other demands like the immediate payment of all salary arrears including march salaries for its members in all federal (GIFMIS platform) and state tertiary health institutions across the country, upward review of the current hazard allowance to 50 per cent of consolidated basic salaries of all health workers and payment of the outstanding COVID-19 inducement allowance, payment of death in service insurance for all health workers who died as a result of COVID-19 infection or other infectious diseases, among other demands are yet to be met.

    “We want to use this medium to reiterate our commitment to the smooth running of all tertiary institutions in the country and the provision of specialist healthcare to Nigerians, but we need to first of all care for our own health and welfare in order to give standard care to our patients. This is in line with our physician oath.”

  • Strike: FG begs doctors to return to work

    Strike: FG begs doctors to return to work

    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.

    He said despite the government’s best efforts, important lessons must be learned from the COVID-19 response.

    He said a first step towards this was optimum financing and release of health budgets in states and local governments, noting to ensure this, that the Federal Government had operationalized the Basic Health Care Provision Fund as provided for in the National Health Act 2014.

    Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, whose speech was read by Walter Kazadi-Mulombo, Country Representative, said at least half of the world’s population still lacked access to essential health services.

    Moeti said over 800 million people spent at least 10% of their household income on health care, and out of pocket expenses drive almost 100 million people into poverty each year.

    Meanwhile, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors has said that it will continue its ongoing indefinite strike that started on April 1 as the government was yet to meet its demands.

    The association stated this in a communiqué issued after its virtual national executive council meeting last night. The meeting was held to review the strike action and the government’s offers.

    It blamed Ngige for feigning ignorance on the amount paid for hazard allowance on national television yesterday.

    “This is an all-time low coming from someone who has been in the Nigeria Senate where monthly hardship allowance for senators is N1,​242,122.70.

    “Demanding for five weeks for its review despite the ongoing strike is really shameful. A sincere government should immediately call all stakeholders together to address this issue ones and for all,” the association said.

  • Join strike now or pay N5m fine, NARD threatens COVID-19 doctors

    Join strike now or pay N5m fine, NARD threatens COVID-19 doctors

    The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has ordered doctors at the COVID-19 isolation centers to join the ongoing nationwide strike.

    NARD threatened that failure to do so will attract a fine of N5m.

    The body also warned that any branches ignoring the ongoing strike, which started on April 1, would not be able to hold any national position for the next two years.

    The threat to impose a N5m fine on errant branches was contained in an internal memo sent out to members by the National Executive Council of the association, the Punch newspaper reported.

    The internal memo read in part, “NARD affirms her commitment to the welfare of all members. All members of NARD will be levied the sum of N2, 500 as a strike levy for the smooth prosecution of the industrial action.

    “Penalty for any centre that sabotages the industrial action will be payment of a fine of N5m and suspension from holding any NARD national officers committee positions for two years.”

    NARD, an association of doctors undergoing residency training, had on April 1 begun a nationwide strike over the government’s failure to pay salaries of house officers and review the N5,000 hazard allowance of doctors.

    Last-minute efforts on March 31 by the Federal Government to prevent the strike failed as the doctors shunned an agreement they signed with the government on the grounds that the proposals contained in it were not new.