Members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, Ogun State have began an indefinite strike over alleged non-implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Scale (CONMESS).
This was contained in a statement jointly signed by the ARD President, Dr Walter Nzeakah; Dr Sewanu Awhangansi, the General Secretary, and Dr Mojisola Adeniji, the Public Relations Officer.
According to the unionists, the strike is to protest the continued payment of half salaries by the hospital management in defiance of the directive by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole.
They said the hospital management under the leadership of the Medical Director, Dr Akinwande Akinhanmi, had been making “failed promises’’.
They vowed to sustain the strike till the authorities acceded to their demands.
The resident doctors contended that the strike became imperative following the resolution of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) at the recent National Executive Council mandated ARD chapters where members were not on full salaries by the end of July 2016 to withdraw their services.
They said the directive for management of public health institutions to pay the CONMESS was issued by the Federal Government in December 2013, and became effective since 2014.
However, they pointed out that their colleagues in Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta; Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, and the University College Hospital, Ibadan, had started receiving their full CONMESS.
“These three hospitals alongside NPH Aro, Abeokuta, were all party to the agreement brokered by a high powered group of eminent personalities in August 2015 that led to the suspension of ongoing industrial actions at the time.
“A year after and while others have complied, the management of NPH Aro, Abeokuta has stoically refused to honour those agreements, despite clear instructions to this effect by the Federal Ministry of Health.
“Furthermore, all other staff members in the hospital are receiving their full emoluments while doctors are only being paid fractions since 2014.
“This was what necessitated the industrial action we embarked on since Monday August 1,’’ the statement read in part.
The association called on well-meaning Nigerians to persuade the hospital management to honour the subsisting agreements by paying the full emoluments of all resident doctors and medical officers in the institution.
Efforts to get the reaction of the hospital’s Medical Director, Dr Akinwande Akinhanmi, proved abortive as he was yet to respond to the text messages and calls made to his mobile phone.
