Resident doctors at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Abia State have demanded for residency training to boost their delivery capacity.
The President of the Association of Resident Doctors at the centre, Dr. Innocent Orji, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Umuahia on Wednesday.
Orji said that the association had identified management’s inability to sponsor their residency training as one of the challenges facing them.
He added that the hospital had failed to pay the 100 per cent increase in their salary as approved in 2014 by the Federal Government.
Orji said the management had been paying 50 per cent of the increase since September 2015 to date.
He said that the condition of service at the hospital had worsened, adding that “resident doctors can no longer cope with the situation”.
He also expressed worry that the hospital stopped funding residency training in 2013, while members, he said, who sponsored themselves, could not get a refund.
The medical doctor said the development was inimical to their growth, pointing out that they needed to attend training and also write examinations to qualify for promotion.
He also alleged that the resident doctors were being “over-worked” due to the dearth of medical personnel in the hospital.
Orji said they worked round the clock on a daily basis and had little time to study and prepare to write their exams to pass.
He said that as a result of these challenges, doctors who could not pass their exams for four years running were sacked by the hospital.
He expressed worry that some of the doctors who were sacked in February 2016, were not paid their outstanding salaries or refunded their update and research fees.
Orji called for the immediate enrolment of its members in the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System to check the alleged deductions in their salary by the management.
He said that because their salaries were released by the Federal Government to the hospital, the management “cashes in on the opportunity to intimidate doctors that are not in their good books”.
The chairman regretted that there was no uniform template on residency training,
pointing out that the development had made it difficult to enforce compliance by some institutions.
He said that the association had commenced daily rallies in the hospital in line with the directive from the headquarters of the NARD.
Orji said the rallies were meant “to sensitise the public on the plight of resident doctors in the country”.
He said that the rallies would end on January 11, ahead of a planned nationwide strike which, according to him, is billed to commence on January 12, should the federal government fail to meet NARD request.
Reacting to the development, the Public Relations Officer of the Centre, Darlington Madubuko, said the hospital did not have any internal wrangling outside the national directive by NARD.
Madubuko denied the allegation that the management was deducting resident doctor’s salaries, adding that their salaries are being paid by IPPIS.
He further explained that only doctors on housemanship and internship were being paid by the management.
On funding of residency training, he said that government’s provision for such training was incorporated in their salaries from IPPIS.
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