Demands recall of sacked resident doctors
National Medi­cal Association (NMA), yesterday, suspended its 55-day nationwide strike and directed doctors to resume work today.
Apparently, expecting the government to reciprocate its gesture, the association also demanded for the recall of the 16,000 resident doctors affected by the suspension of the residency-training pro­gramme in federal hospitals.
The NMA proceeded on strike on July 1 following the lapse of a two-week ul­timatum issued the Federal Government over its failure to meet the association’s 24-point demand.
The demands made by the NMA included a N100, 000 monthly hazard allowance for doctors, payment of clinical duty allowance for honorary consultants and the appoint­ment of deputy chairman of Medical Advisory Commit­tee in Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres. The association, in a veiled refer­ence to other health workers had strongly opposed the ap­pointment of non-doctors as consultants, directors or chief medical directors.
Briefing journalists at the association’s headquarters in Abuja, the National President of NMA, Dr. Kayode Obembe said the decision to suspend the strike was taken during an emergency national delegates’ meeting of the association, which took place on Saturday.
He said the association heeded many calls from the public, adding that the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak was another important reason doctors decided to return to work. “Delegates resolved to suspend the strike in the inter­est of urgent national emer­gencies, while negotiations continue,” he said.
The NMA president dis­closed that the salient is­sues raised by doctors had been addressed by govern­ment, stressing that the strike achieved its purpose, judging by the fact that in some cases, circulars had been issued to back up agreements reached by both parties.
He said: “Our demands were centered on the improve­ment of the structure and tra­dition of our noble profession.
“There are areas that deal with clinical governance and redressing injustice. For the areas that deal with clinical governance, we have been able to extract various white papers from government.
“For example, government issued a circular that only doctors whose degrees can be registered with the Nigerian Medical Council can be giv­en the title of consultant. We have also been able to extract the agreement that the post of deputy chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, be re­instated. “Then, in the area of injus­tice meted out on our mem­bers, we have been able to extract from government, a firm commitment that the ar­rears of the relativity package will be paid.
“In fact, two months of the relativity adjustment (money) has been paid. We also ex­tracted from government the need to review doctors’ haz­ard allowance especially in the face of the EVD outbreak.
“Government has since realised that the hazard al­lowance which is N5,000 is a grave injustice; so, it has to do something about it. Govern­ment has assured us that at least 20 or 30 per cent of our salary will be set aside as haz­ard allowance.”
Obembe commended President Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate President, Senator David Mark; Delta State Gov­ernor, Dr. Emmanuel Udu­aghan and the chairmen of the Health Committees in the Senate as well as the House of Representatives for mediating in the crisis.

NMA formally calls off strike