By As the strike embarked upon by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) enters a week, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has apologised to Nigerians.
The resident doctors had, on Thursday, embarked on an indefinite strike over salary arrears and owed allowances.
The NMA Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chapter, Enema Amodu, while speaking with correspondents, said the association is “very sorry” for the “epileptic irregular healthcare delivery”, adding that they (doctors) had taken an oath to care of their patients.
Amodu said: “We are not insensitive; we hope that government and those in charge of the discussion with NARD will take it seriously, with a view to settling the issues at stake.
“To our patients, we are very sorry that you have to suffer this epileptic irregular healthcare service delivery; we have taken an oath to take care of you.”
He mentioned that doctors’ welfare is equally important in the discharge of their duties.
“But if a doctor is not in a sound state of mind and is not happy with what he or she is getting from the job, the doctor may not be in right frame of mind to discharge his or her duty right,” Amodu said.
“And this will invariably affect you; by the time we get placed properly, renumeration and other welfare matters and facilities that we need to serve you, we will be able to serve you better with productive results.”
Recall the minister of labour, Chris Ngige, reacting to the strike action, said he will invoke “weapons in the labour laws” on the striking doctors should they refuse to call off the action after government meets some of their demands. Ngige made this known on Friday when he featured on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme
Meanwhile the NMA, in a joint statement, has described Ngige’s comments as hate speech, capable of escalating “the rather unimaginable current brain drain.”
