Nigeria may end up without doctors – NARD

The brain drain that has caused a labor shortfall in the nation’s medical industry has being addressed by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

NARD’s president, Dr. Emeka Innocent Orji, issued a statement after the organization’s national executive council (NEC) meeting on January 29 in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, urging the Federal Ministry of Health to move quickly on the “one-for-one policy” to stop the nation’s brain drain.

Lamenting over the poor response of most state governments in domesticating the Medical Residency Training Act, 2017, six years after it was signed into law, NARD called on the federal government to urgently start the process of payment of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) for 2023 to enable its members use the funds for the February update courses and the March/April/May examination.

The group also asked the federal government to urgently pay the skipping arrears for 2014, 2015 and 2016 as well as the shortfall from the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage to deserving members.

The statement added;

 “The activities of the committee set up for the review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) be hastened and that NARD should be carried along in the processes for her inputs to be made to avoid unnecessary outcomes.”

The federal government also urged the federal government, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and other stakeholders to prevail on Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and his Ekiti, Imo and Ondo counterparts to pay 25, three, 10 and five months owed to their colleagues.