Dr Afolabi Owojuyigbe, Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), Ile-Ife, has expressed optimism that the ongoing nationwide strike by resident doctors will soon be over.
He stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Ile-Ife.
Owojuyigbe confirmed that the resident doctors at the health facility had joined the strike which began nationwide on Monday.
He, however, said that the consultants and other health workers at the hospital were attending to patients.
The CMAC chairman said that the several meetings being held between the Federal Government and NARD leadership would soon yield result.
Also speaking, NARD President, OAUTHC branch, Dr Simeon Kusoro, said that his members had fully complied with the directive of the national body to embark on strike.
Kusoro said that the industrial action was borne out of the federal government’s failure to honour and implement the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the association.
He expressed the regret that many doctors had left the country for greener pastures due to the sorry state of the health sector and government’s refusal to prioritise doctors’ welfare.
The NARD president added that resident doctors had not been paid their salaries for some months, with other issues also remaining unattended to.
He urged the federal government to do the needful by implementing the MoU which it signed with NARD so as to resolve the industrial dispute and allow Nigerians to enjoy necessary medical attention.
Mr Wale Aina, who has a patient at Endoscopy Suite in the hospital, appealed to the federal government to accede to the demands of the resident doctors so that the helpless patients could be attended to.
According to him, most of the patients could not afford to seek medical attention at private hospitals. (NAN)
