The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has brought its 64-day old strike to a standstill and is ready to go back fully to work, come Wednesday, 6th October, 2021. NARD’s newly elected President, Dr Godiya Ishaya, made this known in a media briefing on Monday, following a long meeting of the association’s National Electoral Commitee (NEC) which held on Sunday in Abuja.
Dr Godiya Ishaya, NARD President, revealed that the suspension of the strike is supposed to last for 6 weeks, so as to give room for the Federal Government to fulfill its promises to the fullest. He also asked the government, as agreed, to withdraw its court case against NARD as an omen of goodwill. He added that, should the government fail again, the National Electoral Commitee of the Nigerian Resident Doctors would have to meet at the end of the 6-week period to decide on the next line of action.
The 9-week strike was suspended because the government had begun payments of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) to the doctors, which was one of NARD’s prime requests. Before the payments commenced, NARD had given FG a 72-hour ultimatum to act according to the Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed between both parties. The government however failed to meet up with this fresh ultimatum and even denied knowledge of such ultimatum.
Th strike commenced on the 2nd August, 2021 and lasted for about 9 weeks. Students in the clinical phase of their medical training at major teaching hospitals nationwide have been at a great disadvantage due to the hampering impact on the strike on learning. Several lives have of course, been lost and patients have endured prolonged treatment interruption as a result of the strike. However, this marks the beginning of a positive turn around for both students and patients.
Hopefully, the wards and clinics will blossom again with a myriad of cases for teaching as resident doctors return to provide quality healthcare and see that clinical activities are restored to normalcy, from Wednesday.
It’s indeed a good news that the clinical activities have been restored to normalcy. No doubt, both the students and patients would be glad once again. Government should always do obeisance to the request(s) of the health sector and do what is required of them. Intermittent strikes would not do the health sector any good at all.