NARD accuses FG for not funding training of Nigerian doctors

National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has accused federal government of not funding the training of doctors which has frustrated the profession in the country. Speaking on the theme: ‘Funding post graduate medical education: a panacea to medical tourism’ the NARD President John Onyebueze said; “To the public, the perceived ‘indifferent’ behaviour by the resident doctors has been a result of repeated insincerity by the various government agencies”
“We pray they will learn to uphold their side of the bargain to curb the incessant disharmony” Onyebueze claimed that Nigerian doctors are some of the best in the world, “Over the years, there has been incessant disharmony in the health sector owing to inability of various government agencies to abide by agreements reached or obey extant circulars”

“A case in mind is the July 14, 2016 stakeholders meeting chaired by Hon. Yakubu Dogara” he lamented, disclosing that resident doctors were made to work under very unfavourable conditions, thus adding to their frustration which, according to him, is vented on the patient.

He maintained that funding post-graduate medical education in the country will ensure that the current brain-drain in the profession is stemmed while the number of those going for medical tourism abroad be reduced to the barest minimum.
“It is heartbreaking that in this era of change, resident doctors who are the pillars of the medical workforce, working under the most unbearable conditions with resilience and doggedness will be abysmally remunerated and treated with contempt by our employers with unwanted delays in the payment of our salaries, and paid fractions when eventually paid,” he lamented.

Earlier, wife of former governor of Cross River State, Mrs. Onari Duke, who chaired the occasion, had challenged doctors to rise above the current challenges and work out solutions to their persistent loggerheads with authorities.
She urged the resident doctors to come up with a practical programme of action that will enhance their welfare and professionalism, saying the country had suffered enough through persistent strike actions.