Resident doctors in Nigeria commenced a warning strike on Wednesday following the failure of the federal government to meet their demands.

Development Diaries reports that the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) is demanding an immediate increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) to the tune of 200 percent of the current gross salaries of doctors.

The doctors also want the immediate withdrawal of the bill seeking to compel medical and dental graduates to render five-year compulsory services in Nigeria before being granted full licence to practise.

They also want the immediate implementation of CONMESS, domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act, and review of hazard allowance by all the state governments as well as private tertiary health institutions where any form of residency training is done; among others.

Although the federal government claimed to have started negotiations with the doctors’  parent organisation, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), it is understood that the doctors are continuing their strike.

The doctors called on the federal government to address its demands before the 29 May handover to a new administration, saying industrial harmony could not be guaranteed thereafter.

Despite Nigeria’s strategic position in Africa, the country is greatly disreputable in the health care sphere. A 2018 report by medical journal, The Lancet, ranked Nigeria among the countries with the worst health care in the world.

Health facilities (health centres, personnel, and medical equipment) are inadequate in this country, especially in rural areas.

This has led to the high brain drain caused by the emigration of doctors which can only be described as alarming.

The statistics show that in the last seven years, 10,296 doctors who obtained their degrees in Nigeria left the country to practice in the United Kingdom.

Between the six months of December 2021 and May this year alone, 727 medical doctors that trained in Nigeria have relocated to the UK.

Data from the UK’s Register of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) shows that the number of Nigerian-trained nurses rose by 68.4 percent, from 2,790 in March 2017 to 7,256 in March 2022.

During his campaign for office, the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, promised to reverse the massive brain drain in the health sector and also introduce innovative policies to ensure quality health care service delivery for Nigerians.

He also promised to set a target to cover a minimum of 87 million or 40 percent of Nigerians within two years of deploying the mandatory national health insurance scheme.

In his manifesto, Tinubu stated that his administration would ‘Make basic health care, education, and housing accessible and affordable for all’.

It is important that the federal government meets the demands of the doctors to avert an indefinite strike as it will take a huge toll on the country’s health sector.

Development Diaries calls on the incoming federal and state governments to prioritise investing in and revamping the healthcare sector and address the demands of the doctors.

Photo source: World Bank