The Federal Government last week sacked striking resident doctors 48 hours after they commenced an industrial action under the aegis of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to demand better conditions for their residency training programme.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, communicated the sack order via a circular signed by the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, Amina Shamaki. He directed the chief medical directors and medical directors of all the government-owned tertiary health institutions to fill the vacancies occasioned by the sack from the pool of applicants for residency training programme in the various disciplines.
The government said it took the decision because the resident doctors abandoned their training programme, “in order not to create ominous gap in training with attendant disruption of health care delivery” in the hospitals.
It is sad that we are having another round of industrial unrest involving resident doctors in the country. The doctors residency training programme is reportedly already under review, with ongoing negotiations on the demands put forward by the NARD under the auspices of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). Prof. Wole Atoyebi, Registrar of the National Postgraduate Medical College, Ijanikin, Lagos, is the head of a panel set up to review postgraduate medical training in the country.
We recall that resident doctors had last month embarked on a warning strike to alert the Federal Government to their grievances on issues relating to their welfare and conditions of service. They later embarked on an indefinite strike which crippled services in most teaching hospitals. The patients who were already on admission in some of these health facilities were reportedly either abandoned or forcefully discharged.
The minister had also, last month, inaugurated a ministerial committee on the restructuring of the residency programme with a view to institutionalizing effective training for doctors in the health sector. The committee was empowered to, among other things, examine the existing funding mechanism for the residency training scheme, and the role of relevant stakeholders, including the government, resident doctors and the teaching hospitals.
The committe was also expected to make recommendations on a sustainable uniform residency training programme in terms of structure and training modules, including a template for appointment of resident doctors in the country.
The leadership of NARD has since suspended the strike after a meeting with other health sector stakeholders. It also appealed to its members to await its next meeting scheduled for next month. The decision to suspend the strike reportedly came on the heels of a meeting between the resident doctors and other stakeholders organised by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
The mass sack of resident doctors is a rather draconian approach to the NARD strike and we are glad the doctors suspended their strike, thereby making their sack unnecessary. The wholesale sacking of striking medical workers has never helped the health care delivery system in the past and it cannot do so now. It appears that our policy makers have not learnt from past mistakes in this regard.
Other than the sack, we believe that there are more civil ways of handling trade disputes of this nature. Government ought to have exploited the dialogue option. It is after the failure of dialogue that something as punitive as sack can be contemplated. There is no doubt that the residency programme in Nigeria has several challenges. It is clearly not adequately funded. The issues the resident doctors raised have been there for ages with successive administrations paying lip service to them.
We also think the resident doctors need to find other ways of resolving their welfare issues with the government other than via a strike. The downing of tools should be the last option after all peaceful means of settling trade disputes have been exhausted. The easy recourse to industrial action has steadily worsened the woes of the health sector. It is not in the best interest of patients and the country’s health system.
We, therefore, call on the government and the resident doctors to sheathe their swords and dialogue on the way forward. Our already troubled health sector cannot afford another wave of industrial action. Government should adequately fund the residency programme and the health sector in general. It should stem the growing fad of medical tourism by improving health care delivery in the country. The institution of an effective and stable residency training programme will go a long way in improving the quality of medical service in the country.