The Federal Government has sacked resident doctors who have embarked on a strike action across the country since Monday.
Consequently, the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole has instructed chief medical directors in all Federal Government tertiary health institutions to employ doctors to fill the vacancies created by the striking resident doctors, alleged to have “abandoned” their training programme.
The spokesperson of the ministry, Bolade Akinola explained that the directive was contained in a circular signed by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Amina Shamaki.
According to the circular, “It has come to the notice of the management of the ministry that some resident doctors in your establishment have voluntarily withdrawn from the residency training programme by refusing to report for training without authorisation. Public service rule, PSR 030402 (e) is relevant.
“This is in spite of the ongoing negotiations on their demands put forward by the representatives of the National Association of Resident Doctors under the auspices of the Nigerian Medical Association.
“In view of this development, you are hereby directed to replace all the doctors that have withdrawn their services, with others from the pool of applicants for the training programme in the various disciplines in order not to create ominous gap in training with attendant disruption of health care delivery in your facility. Please, ensure immediate compliance.”
