Doctors in Nigeria have demanded a review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Scheme (CONMESS) and payment of the revised 2023 medical residency training fund by the Federal Government before May 29 hand-over date, in the same vein as English doctors who began the most disruptive strike in UK history yesterday over pay and working conditions.
In a statement released by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) after its emergency extended National officers’Committeee (NOC), which was held virtually, the medical professionals reprimanded the House of Representatives for passing the objectionable bill proposed by Ganiyu Johnson. They claimed the bill embodied modern-day slavery and should be discarded.
A resident doctor is a recently graduated medical school doctor who is enrolled in a graduate medical education (GME) program. In the healthcare industry, resident doctors are sometimes referred to as “residents” and first-year residents as “interns”.
NARD has significant sway in Nigeria because its members make up roughly 70% of the medical staff in federal medical facilities and teaching hospitals nationwide.
The resident physicians agreed with the House of Representatives that the current threat of brain drain in the health sector has concrete hazards, and they pledged to collaborate with all levels of government to halt the trend and find real solutions.
However, they asserted that the group will rebuff any attempt by the government or any of its agents to reduce Nigerian doctors to servitude.
The resident physicians encouraged the Federal Ministry of Health and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to review the existing condition of the membership certificate of the postgraduate college upgrading it to what it was in the past and what is currently the case in other West African nations. To analyze the issues brought up and decide on the best course of action, the resident doctors decided to call a special National Executive Council Meeting within the next two weeks.
