The Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors is urging the Federal Government to urgently address the shortage of manpower and insecurity affecting resident doctors in the country.
Dr. Dele Abdullahi, the president of the association, made this call during a press conference in Abuja on Saturday. NARD held its 2024 National Executive Council meeting in Abuja from January 30 to February 3, where it discussed various challenges experienced by resident doctors in Nigeria.
Amongst other issues, the association highlighted insecurity, the government’s failure to implement one-on-one clinical staff replacement, measures to combat brain drain, poor financing, and non-payment of salaries and arrears as major challenges faced by its members.
Abdullahi emphasized the serious challenges of manpower shortages in hospitals, the resultant burnout on members, and the government’s failure to implement one-for-one replacement of clinical staff and other measures to mitigate brain drain.
He also pointed out assault on doctors, high medical students’ professional examination fees, maltreatment of staff by some Chief Medical Directors, and poor remuneration as reasons for the migration of medical healthcare workers in Nigeria.
Abdullahi highlighted the non-compliance of Chief Medical Directors and Managing Directors of tertiary health institutions to commence payment of approved allowances to resident doctors and the alarming increase in the rate of assault against medical doctors within their duty post.
He urged the various medical examination bodies to withdraw the fee increments to enable students to register and sit for their examinations. Additionally, he mentioned that the association has asked its local chapters to deliberate on modalities to address the issues and revert within four weeks, at which point an extraordinary general meeting would be held to discuss further actions.