• Suspension will worsen health indices, says Commonwealth Medical Association

• Lagos NMA insists on reinstatement of sacked doctors

• Centre condemns sack, Dabiri-Erewa calls for dialogue

 

IN reaction to criticisms against the suspension of residency training programme in federal hospitals and the purported sack of 16,000 resident doctors, the Federal Government has disclosed plans to restart the programme after an overhaul of the system.

 

Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the closure was in response to complaints on how the programme is being run, with the motive of improving how doctors are trained during residency.

 

But Vice President, Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA) and immediate Past President, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Osahon Enabulele, yesterday said the decision of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan-led Federal Government to suspend Residency Training Programme (RTP) in Nigeria and sack of over 16, 000 resident doctors and would be specialist medical doctors and dentists is a most unstatesmanly, unsustainable and ill-advised approach towards the resolution of the challenges in the health sector. 

 

Enabulele in a statement said it is undoubtedly an unproductive decision capable of further worsening the crisis and the challenges in the health sector. He said this latest action of the Federal Government clearly indicates that most of our political office holders hardly learn lessons from history, or else why would a government in this 21st century apply a most draconian option that never succeeded even under the military regime of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in 1985 or the infamous authoritarian dismissal of 774 doctors by the Babatunde Raji Fashola-led Lagos State government in 2012.

 

However, the NMA has told its members in Lagos State not to “connive” with state government, urging them to reject sack letters, applying or taking up any locum appointment in respect of the Federal Government’s sack of residency programme. The NMA, Lagos branch, has also advised the Lagos State government to “toe the part of true democracy as it preaches” and henceforth stop the employment of doctors as casual workers, adding that all doctors currently on such engagement should be converted to regular employment status.

 

According to Chukwu: “Practically, the programme has been suspended in the last two months because no one is training. We are just taking a look at the situation and after that, we will restart the engine. “As of today, no doctor has been stopped from working. And don’t forget that residency programme has only been stopped in federal institutions. They are still on in state-owned teaching hospitals. If any doctor even wants to volunteer in addressing Ebola disease, such person is welcome and will be appreciated greatly.”

 

Apparently unconvinced by government’s explanation, the Lagos NMA reiterated that the doctors remain resolute in their strike demands and would not be deterred by the mass sack, adding that all negotiations between the NMA and Federal Government are suspended until the sacked doctors are reinstated.  

 

Chairman of the Lagos NMA, Dr. Tope Ojo, told The Guardian yesterday that the sack action by the Federal Government of President Goodluck Jonathan was act of tyranny. Ojo said: “In the last six years, there has been consistent pressure from some allied health workers’ union for government to stop the training of specialists in Nigeria, but it is most unfortunate that the Federal Government got entangled in this unholy conspiracy against the Nigerian people by heeding this retrogressive call.”

 

In another development, as the Justice Research Centre (JRC) yesterday condemned the sack of 16,000 resident doctors by the Federal Government, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Nigerians in Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to rescind the decision of suspending the resident doctors in the country. While appealing to the entire NMA to be reasonable in their demands and opt for dialogue to make peace in the interest of the nation, she described the sack as “highly questionable” considering the present outbreak of the Ebola virus plaguing our nation. Dabiri-Erewa told The Guardian yesterday that although it is understandable that the Federal Government may have disagreements with the striking doctors but opting to sack all resident doctors given the present predicament is “unjustifiable, insensitive and inconsiderate.”

 

A statement by the Director of the Centre, Donald Inwalomhe in Benin City yesterday, said the move was “unwise, illegal, unconstitutional, and can only best be described as a travesty of justice. It is reminiscence of the draconian and dark days of military juntas when the Abacha military dictatorship sacked striking lecturers; an action, which no other government, be it military or civilian, had resorted to until now. 

 

Besides, Secretary of the Lagos NMA, Dr. Babajide Saheed, reiterated the position of the national body, saying that the current industrial action continues. He said that the only condition to resume talks with the government is for it to reverse the sack of 16,000 resident doctors nationwide unconditionally and with immediate effect. 

 

Enabulele said he is most appalled by the use of an extreme, unwarranted and retrogressive measure by the present Federal Government, saying: “With this action of government, there is bound to be worsening of the braindrain phenomenon with increased migration of doctors and specialist medical/dental practitioners abroad. This will certainly worsen the health human resource crisis in Nigeria. Surely, it will deprive Nigeria of the required skilled medical/dental manpower needed to handle the increasingly complex medical/dental conditions of the 21st century.”

 

He said there is still room for constructive dialogue and amicable resolution of the current dispute between the Federal Government and Nigerian doctors.

 

By Chukwuma Muanya, Wole Oyebade, Tunde Akinola (Lagos) and Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu (Benin City)

Guardian