Doctors Continue Strike Despite Meeting With FG

Doctors across Nigeria have continued with their strike action, despite meeting with a delegation of the Federal Government, Thursday morning.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Labour, the strike is expected to last until at least Friday when the doctors will meet to go over the government’s reaction to their demands.

The doctors through their national body, The National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, embarked on the strike on Monday, Sept. 4, hoping to press for the implementation of the National Health Act, payment of salary arrears, and four other demands.

At the end of the meeting on Thursday, a statement by the Ministry of Labour said “”The meeting agreed that NARD national officers are to present the outcome of the re-negotiated Memorandum of Terms of settlement to an emergency meeting of its members by Friday, Sept. 8, 2017, with a view to suspending the strike once there is evidence of payment of the mandate as presented to the meeting, to the affected institutions”.

The Ministry of Health was allocated a meagre 4.17 percent of the Nigerian budget for 2017.

President Muhammadu Buhari spent 104 days on medical tourism in the United Kingdom, a trend he promised to stop when elected.