The Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has warned house officers who are currently training in hospitals across Nigeria not to join the ongoing strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).
The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, announced this during a press conference on Thursday in Abuja.
It will be recalled that Chronicle NG reported that NARD embarked on a nationwide strike on August 2, 2021.
“You will recall that we had a memorandum of action on March 31 and had an addendum to it on April 9.
“But since then, we still have had irregularities in the payment of salaries to the house officers.
“We had issues with them being a non-regular payment, and as part of the memorandum of action, it was said that they should be captured back into the IPPIS platform,” the minister said.
The striking doctors had noted among their grieviances that house officers were being owed 12 months’ salaries.
In response, Mamora said, “House officers are undergoing training; they are not full-fledged doctors. They are not and should not go on strike.“
According to him, house officers work generically across General Surgery, Orthopaedics, Plastic Surgery, and General Medicine and Medical Specialties.
He also added that they also worked in their designated services wherever possible and were also attached to consultants.
