FG threatens to sack doctors who fail to resume work on Wednesday

THE federal government has threatened to sack medical doctors in its payroll who fail to report at their duty posts on Wednesday.

To this end, the government has directed all Chief Medical Directors, CMDs, of its hospitals to open a record-keeping register between 7:00am and 12:00 noon each day, beginning from Wednesday, insisting that those who fail to show up for duty would be identified and appropriately dealt with.

The government’s threat which came through the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, was a fallout of a meeting convened at the instance of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, to negotiate with the striking doctors under the aegis of National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, with an interest of resolving the issues that led to declaration of strike, Monday by the latter.

The negotiation meeting, which started at about 1:00 pm on Tuesday and lasted for several hours ended in deadlock as members of the association led, by its National President, Dr Aliyu Socumba, angrily stormed out of the meeting.

He threatened that the doctors would only suspend the ongoing action within 24 hours if the government bring something tangible on the table.