By: John Bassey, Zamfara.
The Zamfara state chapter of National Association of Resident Doctors NARD under the leadership of Dr. Ibrahim Dauran has announced that the strike remains in indefinite, total and comprehensive without compromise until their request are granted by Federal government, calling relevant stakeholders to intervene in the interest of patients.
He made this known while addressing our Correspondent on the reasons and requirements necessary for the strike action in his office at Federal Medical Center FMC in Gusau the state capital.
Dr. Ibrahim Dauran maintained that, the main reason for the strike is to seek for their 19 points demands from the Federal government which would enable them to render effective services to the members of the Public in all places of their presence.
These demands are well known by the public including related partners and stakeholders, because we have been seeking these people service demands for the past two years, calling on the Federal government and the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to act fast and intervene.
Professionally, any Doctor that has served beyond 24hours on duty is a dangerous Doctor with capacity of possing threat of misprescription to the live of patients under his/her care. This was included in the 19th point demands from the Federal government.
The services of resident Doctors across 91 federal and state tertiary hospitals are on hold over unpaid arrears, delayed allowances, and other welfare-related issues. Household Doctors are again being owed two years arrears by the Federal government which is practically against the civil service rules.
No civil servants under the employ of the Federal government has suffered the humiliations that caused us to engage this strike action
Currently, 70% of trained Doctors in federal facilities are on strike, one could imagine the number of life that would be lost. After several months of reaching agreement with the Federal government to attend to our demands and they refused, we engaged in four months warning strikes, by the intervention of stakeholders and some federal government actors we withdrew.
Following their instructions, we waited for one month and 6 days after submitting an ultimatum to the government, again, they bluntly refused to grant our our request.
We hereby apologize to the members of the public and our clients for the inconveniences they may face due to the consequences of this strike action, as this is the only Language that the federal government could understand.
This strike is tagged ” Indefinite, total and comprehensive and there is no room for compromise, we are really going to stay on our tentacles until the government meets our demands.
According to Dr. Dauran, the demands presented to the Federal Government include the settlement of long-standing arrears and allowances, and the correction of irregularities in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
Also, the prompt implementation of promotions and upgrades that have been delayed for years.
“While the ministry claims that over N30bn has been released to offset arrears owed to health workers (with doctors receiving only a small fraction of the total sum), this seems diversionary from the demands raised by association.
These arrears, comprising 25/35 per cent Consolidated Medical Salary Structure review, accoutrement allowance, promotion arrears, upgrade arrears, salary arrears, and other entitlements, have all lingered in the last five years without the government offsetting these arrears.
Dr. Dauran commended the Executive Governor of Zamfara state Dr. Dauda Lawal for his interest in revamping health sector in the state, noting that the payment and allowances received by state health workers is far more better than what the federal government offers it workers across the 91 facilities that are currently on strike.
He called on the major stakeholders, politicians and influential members of the public who could gain the attention of the government to intervene on their behalf.