Poor welfare: Resident doctors threaten strike
The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) has alerted of a brewing crisis in hospitals owned by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) over alleged poor welfare and working condition of health workers.
Dr Roland Aigbovo, the President of the association, raised the alarm in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Aigbovo said lingering stagnation of health workers, stalled implementation of skipping policy and poor working condition was responsible for the proposed industrial action.
He said FCTA resident doctors had been on the negotiating table with her management over the stagnation of her members occasioned by the non-implementation of the skipping policy.
He said this was thought to have been resolved following a meeting with the outgoing Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Muhammad Bello, and the Permanent Secretary, Mr Chinyeaka Ohaa.
Aigbovo said the management promised to rectify the stagnation and promote all affected staff to their respective new levels, but it was later found to be untrue as promotion screening continued unabated.
The ARD president stated that the FCTA management had tried to fulfill some of the promises made, especially the part payment of skipping arrears, “but on the issue of promotion, it had been all talk and no action’’.
He recalled that the outgoing FCT minister had directed that doctors affected by the skipping should be promoted to their new grade levels.
However, Aigbovo noted that the doctors were promoted to the same grade level they were earlier promoted to thereby resulting in stagnation.
According to him, we have made frantic efforts to resolve this imbroglio, but it seems FCTA management has reneged on their promise.
“It should be noted that the country’s health sector has experienced calmness with regards to industrial actions and FCTA has benefitted from it greatly,” he said
The ARD president therefore warned that with the recent breakdown in dialogue, a show down was imminent.
He however did not disclose when the strike would commence and what form it would take.
