Nigerian doctors plan strike after Covid-19 kill 14 of their colleagues
What you need to know:
- Besides the paucity of PPEs in federal and state health institutions, the more than 19,000 doctors are also vexed by non-payment of salaries and allowances.
- In spite of national outrage over the timing of the strike due to a surge in cases of the virus, Dr Sokomba said the doctors resolved to take action after their next meeting on August 1.
- He said the government had pushed them to the wall and that, “once you push someone to the wall, there is always an equal and opposite reaction”.
Abuja,
Confirming losing 14 members to the coronavirus, Nigeria’s National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has declared a strike if personal protective equipment (PPE) and life insurance covers are not provided for the frontline workers.
Besides the paucity of PPEs in federal and state health institutions, the more than 19,000 doctors are also vexed by non-payment of salaries and allowances.
NARD’s President, Dr Aliyu Sokomba, said on July 25 that there had been a sharp rise in the number of doctors exposed to Covid-19.
“We have over 1,000 members currently exposed to infection. When you send someone to war, you must equip such an individual,” he said.
“One of the armouries that will embolden these doctors to fight is life insurance. We have lost over 14 of our members across the country and they did not have life insurance.”
EMPTY PROMISES
In spite of national outrage over the timing of the strike due to a surge in cases of the virus, Dr Sokomba said the doctors, who recently suspended a strike notice over the irksome issues, resolved to take action after their next meeting on August 1.
“There is never a good or bad time for industrial action. These doctors also have families. You’ve not paid someone for 14 to 48 months. How do you expect them to be psychologically stable to treat the patients you want them to treat?”
He said the government had pushed them to the wall and that, “once you push someone to the wall, there is always an equal and opposite reaction”.
“We are hoping the government will not just make mere promises because these promises started coming over 30 years ago. No single achievement by any medical doctor in this country came without industrial action,” he said, adding the future is bleak.
LAST RESORT
Meanwhile, Health minister Osagie Ehanire has appealed to the doctors to go on a strike only as a last resort.
The minister said Nigeria is one of the few countries in the world paying medical doctors a hazard allowance.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on July 24 recorded 591 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total to 39,539 with 16,559 recoveries and 845 deaths.
