By Michael Olatunji
Federal Government on Thursday appealed to the striking medical doctors to call off their three-day old strike in the interest of Nigerians.
Addressing journalists after a meeting with the striking medical doctors on Thursday, the Minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire said the doctors should go back to work to salvage the health sector which is currently facing its dire times occasioned by the third wave of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic.
He said it is morally wrong for the doctors to go on strike at a time the country is battling with the third wave of the pandemic adding that reports available to him showed that in many states, patients who have manifested symptoms similar to that of COVID-19 are being turned back and were not tested or treated because the doctors are on strike.
Accompanied by the Minister of State for Health Dr Olorunimbe Mamora, Ehanire asked the doctors to return to work by Friday as all their grievances would be addressed by the Federal Government.
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) had on August 2, 2021 directed their members across the country to embark on an indefinite strike to press home their demand for better conditions of service. They alleged that the Federal Government had reneged on all agreements reached since March 2021.
They argued that doctors lives too matter.