President of National Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi  said the threat by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, to invoke the no-work-no-pay policy this week will not in any way compel members of the association to call off their ongoing strike.

The NARD president stated this on Sunday asking the minister to stop playing politics with medicine.

He said, “It’s quite shameful when our political leaders in power and a doctor try to mix politics with medicine.

“The issue here now is that the minister is trying to justify his failures in meeting our requirements in the entire ultimatum we signed with him over 117 days and he calling International Labour Organisation when he has not done the ones he ought to do.

“Was he not aware that we gave notice of the strike over 116 days? Was he not part of the people that signed the memorandum of action with us?

“We are not calling off the strike today (Monday). We are resolute in our decision on the strike. We want to stay on this until we achieve something.

“We want to achieve something meaningful that will change the narrative of the health sector.”

“We are aware of the implications of the threat but the strike continues. We want to create a new narrative to all the threats. You can’t be threatening somebody when you have not done your part”.

Recall that The Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, had said “Next week, I’ll escalate this issue because reconciliation has failed”

Members of NARD had on August 2 commenced a nationwide industrial action and the resident doctors have blamed the Federal Government for the strike.

They accused the government of failing to implement the Memorandum of Action earlier endorsed by the two parties which necessitated the suspension of the NARD’s earlier strike action in April 2021.

The Katsina State government has begun the distribution of drugs across hospitals towards management of an outbreak of cholera reported in parts of the state.

This was disclosed by Governor Aminu Bello Madari, at the 2021 scientific conference of the Katsina branch of the Nigerian Medical Association. While speaking he said “I would like to inform you that we are aware of the current outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting that affecting some communities in the state. The state government is making efforts towards control of the outbreak”

“Free drugs for the treatment of this outbreak are being purchased for distribution to hospital for treatment of cases while health education on prevention and management of the disease is ongoing and active search and surveillance are also on going across the state” the Governor stated

According to him, “most of our hospitals were left dilapidated with inadequate equipment, poor infrastructure, irregular drugs and medical supplies, inadequate number of healthcare workers, with the resultant poor patients care and poor outcome.

“In our effort to improve the health care service delivery to the teeming population of the state and reverse the ugly situation, the state government embarked on deliberate reforms of the health sector, with adoption national policies that are well domesticated and the creation of more parastatals in the sector”

Governor Aminu also mentioned that “The Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) policy has been adopted and the State Primary Healthcare Agency has been restructured to suit this new policy.

“Health workers involved have been receiving their incentives regularly and have been observing the protocols and successfully treating cases.

“These will go a long way in achieving effective primary health care service delivery particularly to the teeming population at the grassroots, achieving Universal Health Coverage and uninterrupted sustainable drug supply in the state.”