Ekiti owes doctors six months salary arrears

The President of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) chapter of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr. Tunji Olaoye, yesterday said the state government is owing resident doctors six months arrears of salary.

He lamented that the poor welfare being faced by doctors was making life unbearable for his colleagues, that they would have joined the national strike called by the national body of the union but for the ongoing accreditation of Surgery Department expected to end today.

He, however said that doctors at the hospital would down tools from tomorrow.

The EKSUTH NARD president said apart from arrears of salaries, doctors were not being placed appropriately, which is affecting their career progression.

Olaoye said, “We are joining the strike on Thursday after the ongoing accreditation exercise might have ended on Wednesday. We want to appeal to our patients to bear with us. The problem with us in Nigeria is that we are not sensitive to issues that affect workers. Several ultimatums were issued but no response from the government until the action began.”

EKSUTH Chief Medical Director, Dr. Kolawole Ogundipe, said efforts were being made to ensure that “the system does not collapse.”

Ogundipe said, “We will continue to engage our local NARD in negotiation to address their problems. We are discussing and we are going to put our local issues

in the right perspectives. This hospital is owned by the Ekiti State government and not the Federal Government and the responsibility to pay falls on the state government.”