By Ubong Sampson – Uyo
Resident Doctors are most likely returning to work by Wednesday, October 6, 2021, as the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has directed its members across the country to resume work fully.
President of the association, Dr Dare Godiya Ishaya, announced this on Monday while briefing reporters in Abuja following the suspension of the strike by resident doctors which lasted two months.
He explained that the association took the decision to suspend the industrial action due to a simple majority vote of members at a meeting held on Sunday, while however, hinting that the suspension is only for six weeks to allow the Federal Government to address the issues raised by the doctors.
He said while most of the issues that led to the nationwide strike still remained unaddressed, the association decided to suspend the action for the period because of interventions from the President, the National Assembly, and the leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
The NARD strike has been on since early August and was a move my the association to protest the issues affecting members, part of which are the non-payment of death benefits to families of members who died while treating COVID-19 patients, as well as non-payment of hazard allowance and arrears of salaries of members in various states.
The situation in government-owned hospitals within the period has seen many patients being abandoned to their fates.
On its part, the government had convened several meetings with the association, in a bid to get the doctors back to work.
Efforts of the government through several meetings failed to resolve the impasse, as most meetings ended in deadlock, while both parties were caught in the media trading accusations and counter accusations, eventually culminating in a suit filed at the National Industrial Court in Abuja.
Justice Bashar Alkali, who presided over the matter, ordered the resident doctors to suspend their strike and return to work immediately, pending the determination of the substantive suit.
He directed parties in the matter to return to the negotiating table, saying no amount of money could compensate for the loss of lives as a result of the impasse.
Rather than ask members to return to their duty posts, NARD instructed its lawyers to file necessary processes to appeal the ruling.
Barely three weeks after the ruling, 56 officials voted for the suspension of the strike, against 28 others who wanted the strike to continue
