The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), has urged state governments to urgently domesticate the Medical Residency Training Act.
The newly elected President of the association, Dr Tope Osundara made this known in a communique issued at the end of their 44th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Scientific Conference in Abeokuta on Sunday.
NAN reports that the theme of the AGM is “The Evolving Roles of Doctors in Healthcare Management and Nation Building”.
Osundara lamented that lack of political will on the part of governors had continue to stall the domestication of the Act.
He urged them to urgently see to it, adding that only Bayelsa state had domesticated the Act.
He explained that some hospitals and their management had done several things in the past that were inimical to residency in their hospitals.
According to him, the medical residency training act is a policy and a guiding principle for residency within the hospital.
“It will ensure that we can have trained doctors and not quacks in several disciplines within the medical practice or specialty within the medical practice,” he said.
He noted that it would be counterproductive for a doctor to fund his own training with part of his salary, hence the need for the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF).
The doctors, however, commended Gov. Douye Diri of Bayelsa State for domesticating the Act.
“Doctors are not only doing service, we are also doing research and in doing this research, there should be some form of subvention for the programme.
“Lack of political will to fund this residency is what has stalled residency training in some of our state tertiary teaching hospitals,” he said.
According to the communique, the doctors also lamented the nonpayment of the 2024 Medical Residency Training Fund and a 2023 outstanding.
It also noted with dismay, the nonpayment of accoutrement allowance arrears by some Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) and the failure of the Federal government to include the accoutrement allowance in salaries as approved.
The doctors expressed concern over the persistent manpower gap in most hospitals just as it noted with dismay the continued abduction of their colleague, Dr. Ganiyat Popoola”.
They urged the Federal Government to take swift action on the payment of the arrears of the upwardly revised CONMESS and other outstanding salary arrears.
They also called on the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria to expedite the payment of the outstanding MRTF and adhere to agreements made during the stakeholders’ meeting conducted by the Federal Ministry of Health.
“The AGM calls for continued engagement with the ministry of health to ensure prompt
waivers for tertiary health institutions to mitigate the ongoing brain drain.
“The AGM urged all state governors and the FCT minister to domesticate the Medical Residency Training Act and ensure the payment of Medical Residecy Training Fund (MRTF) to all resident doctors working in their states,” the communique read in parts.
