Doctors, under the aegis of Association of Medical and Dental Officers of Oyo State (AMDO), have declared an indefinite strike following the failure of the state government to meet its 5 count demands.

The doctors said the indefinite strike action will commence from midnight Thursday, May 18, 2023, because of the failure of government to meet their demands that have been ongoing in the last 4 years.

The doctors, in a release signed by Dr Adedotun Aladeojebi and Dr Seun Atanda, the General Secretary and Public Relations officer of AMDO, respectively, are demanding improved welfare of members and conducive work environment.

Additional demands are employment of more Doctors to avoid unnecessary harm to members occasioned by being overworked, payment of skipping to members and payment of Responsibility allowance to members.

The doctors said the Federal Government and neighbouring states like Osun, Ogun and Lagos has been paying skipping allowance to doctors since 2014, including Responsibility allowance under different headings.

“We made several moves to avert this situation. We wrote several letters to the government and several attempts were made to meet with government representatives. In fact, we had to suspend all agitations some weeks to the elections to show our loyalty to the performing Governor Engr Seyi Makinde.

“After the elections, we sent a letter to felicitate with the Governor and we also used that medium to remind him of our demands but nothing came out of it. This now led us to write a letter issuing a 21 days ultimatum that at the expiration of the ultimatum and our demands are not met we may not be able to guarantee industrial harmony.

“At the expiration of the ultimatum we didn’t hear anything from the government as usual. So we called for an emergency general meeting where members resolved after several heated discussions to give another 3 weeks ultimatum (14days and 7days respectively) at the end of which we will proceed on an indefinite strike.

“As an association we have explored all possible options to avoid any confrontation with the government but all our efforts proved abortive and we are left with no other choice but to proceed on an industrial action.

“It is worthy of note that as an association we have made provisions for the good people of the state who may need urgent medical attention in our facilities. To this end, we have instructed our members in all facilities in the state to make emergency services at the Accident and emergency units of the hospital available between the hours of 8AM and 4PM while other services remain withdrawn until our demands are met,” the doctors said. (Nigerian Tribune)

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