- The strike was to demand enrollment of their colleagues on government’s payment platform
- Already issued two-week ultimatum to the Federal Government over welfare issues
Members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan on Thursday embarked on a three-week industrial action.
President of ARD-UCH, Dr Abiodun Ogundipe, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan the action was to demand for the enrollment of their colleagues on government’s payment platform.
He said the strike commenced at 8 a.m. on Thursday to call the attention of government to the plight of 250 members of the association.
Ogundipe said the members were employed at UCH in May and were yet to be captured on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and had not been receiving salaries.
“Up till now they were yet to be captured on the platform, which means there is no hope in sight for them.
“This is why we have embarked on this industrial action to express our displeasure and also to plead with the government to help us facilitate this and ensure that our members are as soon as possible placed on the IPPIS platform so that life can be better for them,” he said.
Ogundipe said the strike would be for three weeks hopefully, depending on when the issue would be resolved.
”There are other national issues bordering on welfare which the government needs to address, and we are having a meeting tomorrow (Friday) to review them.
“Already, we have a two-week ultimatum given to the Federal Government.
“This is regarding some of our welfare issues and other matters that have been lingering for long,” he said.
In another development, a former Director in the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Pharmacist Zainab Ujudud Shariff, has called on President Bola Tinubu to give close, strong, sincere and genuine attention to Nigeria’s health sector leveraging on the existing research outcomes currently gathering dust in the Ministry.
To her, the sector can be repositioned for greater effectiveness in delivering healthcare services to Nigerians through a holistic innovative approach and not the usual disjointed way of thinking and actions.
If that is considered, she’s convinced that it would make the Country’s health system function adequately enough to enhance the well-being of Nigerians, stop medical tourism and reduce brain drain in the sector.
She said one way of thinking out of the box is to walk away from “blindly accepting and implementing” ideas wholesale from international health bodies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), without subjecting such ideas to scrutiny and domestication.
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