The President of the Association of Resident Doctors at the National Hospital, Abuja, Dr Akanimo Ebong, on Monday said the Federal Government barely negotiates with health workers until an industrial action is taken.
Ebong, who is also the Senior Registrar at the hospital’s Department of Obstetrics And Gynaecology, made the remark while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
NARD had on Monday resumed its industrial action over unpaid salaries and benefits.
The doctors are also demanding the immediate withdrawal of a circular removing House Officers from the scheme of service.
They had embarked on an earlier strike in April, leaving many patients unattended to across government-owned hospitals in the country.
The strike was suspended 10 days later after they met with Federal Government representatives.
But Ebong said only a little progress was made since then.
“Usually, there is no negotiation done, until we go on a strike,” he said.
He added, “We have resumed our strike today. We never called it off, we only suspended it to give time for negotiations.
“But since we called off the strike on April 10, barely anything has been done.
“When we are back at it, you know we have given a lot of time; we have tried to negotiate, we have tried to make the system work. But unfortunately, we are here again.”
