NMA strike: Obaseki to engage private doctors

 

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state has expressed concern over plans by the Edo state chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to embark on strike, declaring that the latter’s demand were “unrealistic.”
The governor disclosed this yesterday when members of the Governing Board of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) paid him a visit at the Government House, in Benin City.
According to him, the state government is making arrangements for private health care providers to offer essential services to patients in the state government-owned hospitals.
He also disclosed that the state government “will write to the national body” as the Edo state chapter of the association “has threatened to shut down the health system in the state following their unrealistic demands.”
“We believe that the doctors’ demands are unrealistic, having been part of the steps taken so far to improve the conditions of service of medical doctors in the state.
“They see what we are doing and yet have threatened to go on strike because I cannot afford to fulfil 100 per cent of their demands,” he said.
He further said the doctors were not fair to the state “because we agreed with their demands, but cannot afford all the demands now.”
“Rather, we will spread them across four years of this administration, but the Edo NMA rejected the offer and insists on embarking on strike.”

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