After 15 weeks of industrial action, members of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, have suspended the indefinite strike they embarked on over non-implementation of a grade level skipping as directed by the Head of Service of the Federation.
The suspension of the strike was formally announced by the association’s chairman, Dr. Luqman Ogunjimi, who was assisted by the Secretary-General, Dr. Anthony Ude, during a press conference in Ibadan yesterday. The resident doctors had embarked on the strike on May 1, 2015.
The leadership of ARD in UCH also directed all resident doctors at the teaching hospital to resume duty immediately, adding that negotiation would continue with the hospital management towards resolving the bone of contention.
The association, according to Ogunjimi, suspended the strike as a result of intervention by former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; the Medical, Dental Council Association of Nigeria (MDCAN); the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII); elders in the field of Medicine and Dentistry; and other well-meaning Nigerians.
Ogunjimi, who held that the directive was effective from 8 a.m Sunday, explained that the decision was reached in the “interest of our patients.” He noted further that UCH management, under the leadership of the Chief Medical Director, Prof Temitope Alonge, could pay the skipping allowance (from the N940 million fund) from the personnel subvention of the teaching hospital.
“Our stand as a congress is that this N940 million can be used to pay skipping, since payment of salary from personnel subvention can never be misappropriation, more importantly now that the permanent secretary, Ministry of Health, has expressly reiterated the directive for skipping,” he stated.
Ogunjimi also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the strike in UCH and various teaching hospitals across the country with a view to ensuring that similar actions are prevented in the future.
He particularly urged Buhari “to investigate the deliberate delay in the promotion of members of staff in the hospital by hospital management despite regular and up-to-date submission of confidential reports of resident doctors by various clinical departments, among others.”
(Daily Sun)
No comments:
Post a Comment