The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has come hard on the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, for saying developed nations like the United States and the United Kingdom don’t pay resident doctors.
Recall that Ngige, who is also a medical doctor, had on Friday berated the National Association of Resident Doctors for embarking on a nationwide strike, claiming that developed countries don’t pay resident doctors Nigeria does.
He had also stated on Channels Television that resident doctors in foreign countries actually pay the hospitals where they work.
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Reacting in a statement by its National President, Prof. Innocent Ujah; and it’s Secretary-General, Dr. Phillips Ekpe, the NMA lambasted Ngige for the crude methods he was adopting towards ending the strike.
The statement read in part, ‘The attention of the NMA has been drawn to a recent live interview granted on Channels TV on Friday, April 2, 2021, by the Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige.
‘In the interview, the minister alleged that in the USA and other developed countries, resident doctors pay for their residency training abroad, whereas, in Nigeria, the government pays them.
‘In as much as we appreciate the efforts being made by the government to resolve the issues that have led to this avoidable and unnecessary industrial action by NARD, the NMA wishes to clarify the misinformation by the minister in the interview, which is seriously viewed to be a hate speech capable of bringing down the health system in Nigeria and thereby worsening the health care delivery and further escalate the rather unimaginable current brain drain.’
The NMA went further to reveal that in the US and other developed countries, resident doctors work as they are being trained and they are paid by their employers.
‘In the United Kingdom, the employer of resident doctors in the NHS, which is similar to what is obtainable in Nigeria,‘ it added.
The NMA stated that residents also pay to take their postgraduate medical examinations in developed countries, which is what also obtains in Nigeria.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
