TheCable

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has asked the federal government to quickly resolve its disagreement with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

The resident doctors are currently on an indefinite strike over the failure of the government to implement their demands.

Parts of the requests include payment of the 2023 medical residency training fund (MRTF); immediate release of the circular on one-for-one replacement and upward review of the consolidated medical salary structure (CONMESS).

Others are payment of outstanding arrears of consequential adjustment, hazard and skipping allowance.

Amid the strike action, NARD also announced that its members will embark on peaceful nationwide protests from August 9.

In a statement on Tuesday signed by Uche Ojinmah, its president, the NMA said the ongoing labour dispute had dragged on too long.

The association called on the government to resolve the disagreement and also appealed to the resident doctors to “extend a gesture of goodwill” to the government.

“The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) as the umbrella body for all doctors in Nigeria is the mother association to the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and hence as a matter of policy must protect/promote her interest,” the statement reads.

“It is our belief that this avoidable labour dispute has gone on for far too long to the detriment of the common Nigerian citizen.

“We hereby call on our government to quickly conclude measures to resolve all areas of disagreement and eschew all punitive responses in the interest of industrial harmony.

“NMA also calls on NARD to extend a gesture of goodwill towards the government in the interest of our suffering patients and fellow citizens.

“Let’s put aside all obstacles (contrived or real) towards a speedy resolution of this dispute for the love of the nation.

“A better Nigeria is a tangible reality if we all do right by this nation. God bless all Nigerian doctors taking care of Nigerians in Nigeria.”