Minister of Health Professor Onyeabuchi Chukwu yesterday expressed displeasure with the spate of strikes by medical doctors in the country, saying the manner by which the industrial actions are embarked upon could earn the practitioners litigation.

He lamented that Nigerian doctors embark on strike actions without putting in place a contingency plan for their patients.

Declaring open the 16th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Keffi, Nasarawa State, he said the theme of the conference was apt because of the prevailing circumstance where doctors go on strike without  considering its implications.

 Chukwu, who cited instances in the United Kingdom where patients dragged their doctors to court to sue for damages, said doctors must embrace dialogue with relevant authorities as means to settle disputes and avoid the option of jumping at strike actions at every provocation.

 He wondered how a profession with many practitioners appointed as “personal physicians” to political leaders in office, would jump at strike rather than use such “personal physicians” to lobby for government’s attention to their issues. He called on the medical practitioners to take their responsibilities to the society serious.