Doctors’ Strike: FG Warns House Officers Not To Join NARD

The Federal Government through the Ministry of Health (FMOH) has given an order to house officers not to join the ongoing strike action embarked upon by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).The house officers are currently undergoing training in hospitals across the nation.

The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, gave the directive at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.

Recall that NARD embarked on an indefinite nationwide industrial action on Monday.

“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.

NARD, in its communique announcing the industrial action, had stated that house officers were being owed 12 months’ salaries.

Mamora, however, 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 added that they also worked in their designated services wherever possible and were also attached
to consultants.