The Association of Resident Doctors in Enugu State Teaching Hospital (ESUTH) has called off its seven days warning strike following state government’s promise to begin processes on payment of allowances.

Dr Felix Mba, the President of the Association of Resident Doctors, ESUTH branch, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Monday.

Mba said that the state government had assured them that it had started the processes of the payment of the Healthcare Professional Clinical allowance.

“From all indications, the processes have started based on the discussions with the government of Enugu State,” he said.

According to the president, all the resident doctors in Enugu were captured for the payment of the Healthcare Professional Clinical allowance scale, but unfortunately, when the payment began, the names of ESUTH resident doctors were omitted.

He added that the omission of their names for the payment of the allowances was mainly the purpose of the warning strike.

The president explained that it was the right of every resident doctor to get his or her healthcare professional clinical allowance no matter the amount he or she would receive.

Mba said he was hopeful that the state government would redeem its promise made to the association as regards paying the allowances.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Enugu State Chapter, Dr. Ike Okwesiri, had said the resident doctors took to the strike as a last option following series of futile efforts to get the state government pay their allowances.

He said that while the body believed the consolidated medical scale should be paid to every doctor; there had been segregation in the case of Enugu State, as the allowances were paid to doctors in the Ministry of Health and leaving those of resident doctors at ESUT-Parklane.

“ESUT Parklane doctors are receiving close to nothing and they have been at the forefront to say put us at par with our colleagues in the state.

“Surprisingly, this has not happened and we have tried to reach out to the state government within the last two weeks to avert this crisis in the health sector but the government was not keen on doing that.” (NAN)

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