Nigerian Doctors Resume Work Across The Nation

Doctors across Nigeria resumed duty at 8am today across public hospitals where they left work in July 1.
But the association president Dr Kayode Obembe urged his colleagues to “remain calm while negotiations continue.”
The association also asked government to withdraw its suspension of its training programme for resident doctors.
The suspension of the programme last week due government frustration over pro-longed strike by doctors despite the Ebola virus disease amounted to the purported sack of some 16,000 doctors, which is about 70 percent of the entire doctor workforce in the country.
NMA asked that the doctors be “reinstated without punitive measures.”
The suspension of the strike came after it secured a handful of guarantees out of the 24 demands it put before government in June.
Part of the agreement is government’s concession that “only doctors whose degrees are registerable with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria” can get the title of “consultant,” Obembe said.
NMA has been kicking against addressing health workers other than doctors with the title of “consultant” in hospital setting, insisting that only medical staff in charge of patients deserve the title.
Government has also reinstated the position of DCMAC–deputy chairman, medical advisory committee–in federal hospitals, a position non-medical workers in hospitals have been set against.
In addition, NMA got guarantees that no effort will be made to repeal the established position of chief medical director, reserved for doctors, the association said.
It said federal government agreed to pay a backlog of arrears owed doctors on account of relativity with other health workers, starting with two months of arrears, in efforts to “address injustice that’s been on for 22 years,” Obembe said.
NMA said it got assurance that government would review hazard alliance for doctors in the wake of Ebola, which has infected more health workers than other Nigerians.
The review could see hazard allowance, currently at N5,000 per month, rising to 20 percent of a doctor’s salary, NMA said.