 |
| Health Minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu |
Members of the Lagos State Chapter,
Nigerian Medical Association staged a protest at the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital, Idi- Araba, today.
They are protesting the sacking of
16,000 resident doctors in the country by the Federal Government.
The doctors who wore white lab coats
were seen carrying placards with inscriptions such as ‘Sack of 16,000 resident
doctors, Death Sentence for Nigerians!,’ ‘Sack Ebola not Doctors,’ ‘Sack Boko
Haram not Doctors,’ ‘Sack Chukwu not Doctors!’No to Casualisation of Doctor.’
The State Chairman of the
association, Dr. Tope Ojo, who addressed journalist in LUTH, said that the sack
of resident doctors in all Federal teaching hospitals in the country would lead
to imminent collapse of the health sector.
Ojo warned that the NMA would not
resume any negotiations with the Federal Government untill the sacking is
reversed unconditionally.
Ojo said, “The immediate reversal of
the sack of all the 16,000 resident doctors is the minimal demand for us to
resume talks with the Federal Government.
“It is not acceptable to us and we
will do all we can to defend our profession.They did it to ASSU, they signed
several agreement with ASSU and did not fulfill it. They say they have met 90
per cent if our demands, it is not true. We will not relent until we have put
things in place in our hospitals.”
Resident doctors are specialist
doctors in training in teaching hospitals in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that the
Federal Government issued a directive on August 14, that residency training
programme for doctors in its tertiary hospital be suspended.
The doctors also called for the
immediate removal of the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, whom they
alleged to have misled the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
Ojo said,”We are aware that this is
an attempt by the minister to casualise doctors employment in Nigeria as
Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola has done in Lagos State. We will resist it. The
president has been given a wrong counsel, no nation can survive by throwing
away it’s specialist doctors.”
Punch -
No comments:
Post a Comment