Shelve Planned Strike …RSG Advises Resident Doctors

Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike (left), with Chairman, INTELS Nigeria, Mr Gabriele Volpi (2nd right) and other dignitaries, on the governor’s arrival in Onne for a meeting recently

The Permanent Secretary of Rivers State Ministry of Health, Dr. Somiari Isaac Harry, has advised Resident Doctors at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH) to suspend their planned strike action in protest against non-payment of House  Officers.
Dr. Isaac-Harry made the call yesterday at a meeting of the management of the Ministry of Health and executives of the Association of Resident Doctors in Port Harcourt.
The Permanent Secretary promised that the demands of the resident doctors would be taken to the Governor for attention, and urged them to consider the hardship their planned action would cause the populace. He further expressed assurance that the Rivers State.Governor, Chief Barr. Nyesom Wike will respond positively to their demands.
In his response, the President of the Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Emmanuel Dawari Furo urged the state government to treat the payment of outstanding arrears of money owed the Resident Doctors as a matter of urgency. He regretted that only the Resident Doctors’ were left out in the Governor’s payment of salary arrears made to workers.
Dr. Furo, said the decision reached at the Resident Doctor’s meeting with the state Ministry of Health would be conveyed to members of the association at a Congress meeting.
In his remark, the Director, Medical Services in the Rivers State Ministry of Health, said the Ministry of Health, was sympathetic to the plight of the Resident Doctors, but urged them to always follow due process in their actions and should make the interest of the medical profession paramount.
The Director of Finance and Accounts of the ministry, Mr. Sunday Biraneu also pleaded with the Resident Doctors to exercise patience as their money would be paid to them as soon as approval was given by the governor. It would be recalled that the Association of Resident Doctors had threatened industrial action over the non-payment of money owed them by the Rivers State Government.

Taneh Beemene