…Suspend Nationwide Strike for 2 Weeks
Jumoke Olasunkanmi
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) have suspended their indefinite strike which began on July 26.
This was disclosed by its National President, Dr. Innocent Orji, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported Friday night.
A review will be made in two weeks, the wire service quoted him as saying.
“We just suspended the strike. Work to resume by 8 a.m. tomorrow (Saturday, Aug. 12).
“We will review progress made in two weeks,” he said.
The association had planned to stage protests and picket tertiary health institutions and the Federal Ministry of Health but shelved the plan after an interaction with the Presidency, led by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Members of the association embarked on an indefinite strike to press home their demands from the government which include immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), immediate release of the circular on one-for-one replacement and payment of skipping arrears.
Others are an upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) in line with full salary restoration to the 2014 value of CONMESS and payment of the arrears of consequential adjustment of minimum wage to omitted doctors.
Also demanded was the reversal of the downgrading of the membership certificate by Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).
The association also demanded the payment of MRTF, new hazard allowance, skipping and implementation of corrected CONMESS in state tertiary health institutions and payment of omitted hazard allowance arrears.
