Residents doctors to begin warning strike nationwide

[DT]

Members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) all over the country are this morning (Thursday) embarking on a three-day sympathy  strike in protest against the recent sack of 788 medical doctors by the Lagos State Government.

Announcing this at a press conference held at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan on Wednesday, the President of the Association, Dr. Wale Ojediran remarked that the sack of the doctors under the employment of Lagos State Government had assumed a national and unpleasant dimension.

While lamenting that the Lagos State Government actually violated all the contents of the agreement reached with its purportedly sacked doctors, Ojediran stated

that this was so because the government "failed to implement the payment of full CONMESS by removing teaching allowance for some cadres of staff, introducing heavy taxes on the allowances of the doctors and demotion of all doctors in its employ by steps."

"The situation is actually becoming a national crisis. The issue of payment of Consolidated Medical Salary Structure began in September, 2009 when the Federal Government of Nigeria approved its payment," he said.

Ojediran therefore called on policy makers and stakeholders in the health sector in the country to intervene in the crisis since, according to him, all efforts by the doctors to ensure that their demands were met were abortive, a situation which led to strike action.

Ojediran noted that the doctors signed an agreement in March 2011 that the CONMESS salary should be paid in full without compression to all doctors, that

allowances will be classified as non-taxable, thus, no taxes will be deducted and that further welfare packages will be developed to improve working condition for all

healthcare providers in the state.

Daily Trust