The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has suspended the strike action embarked upon on July 26, 2023.
President of the association, Dr Emeka Orji, Friday revealed that the resident doctors would resume work at 8 am on Saturday.
“We just suspended the strike. Work to resume at 8 am tomorrow (Saturday). We will review progress made in two weeks,“ he said.
TheHintsNews reports that the striking doctors had cited the release of the circular for one-for-one replacement of clinical staff, and the payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund as minimum conditions to call off its indefinite strike which commenced on July 26.
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The residents’ doctors had earlier planned to commence a daily peaceful protest, starting from Wednesday, August 9, 2023, if the government fails to meet their demands.
Prior to its well publicised protest, the leadership of the association held a meeting Tuesday with the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio at the presidential Villa.
“We had a fruitful meeting yesterday (Tuesday) at the Villa and with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, so it will not be good to have that level of meeting and the next day we hit the streets to protest, it will look as if there is an ulterior motive behind our demands.
“Our demands are germane because there is a shortage of doctors in our hospitals, so the few of us remaining are being overworked. How long are we going to continue like that? They have told us what they will do today (Wednesday), and tomorrow (Thursday), and we are hopeful they will do the needful. If they are able to do those things, then I am sure the National Executive Committee will give us the mandate to suspend the strike because we are very understanding.
The circular for one-for-one replacement is the first and the 2023 MRTF fund is the second one. If they are able to address them, we will appeal to our members to suspend the strike while we continue to negotiate for all the salary arrears, skipping arrears, and other things.”