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The members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH) in Ondo State have embarked on an indefinite strike action following the non-payment of their salary and poor condition of service.
The resident doctors had earlier on Monday staged a peaceful protest at the facility of the UNIMEDTH in Ondo town to press home their demands.
Among several grievances, the striking doctors cited the correction of irregularities on discrepancies in salary payments and implementation of the new minimum wage scale as part of their demands.
Other demands include payment of all hazard allowance arrears, payment of ARD member’s arrears, and provision of conducive accommodation to resident doctors within the hospital premises and the employment of doctors to increase manpower across the previous departments among others.
But in a statement to announce the strike action on Tuesday, the President of the ARD in the state, Olaogbe Kehinde, said the doctors have been overstretched and could no longer work due to non-payment of their arrears and other benefits.
Dr Olaogbe noted that many doctors in the state have resigned from the job while others left without prior notification due to poor conditions of service.
He also explained that a series of ‘save our souls’ letters had been written to the management for review, but all efforts proved abortive.
When contacted, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr Gbala Michael told Daily Trust that the authorities have pleaded with the striking doctors to give more room for dialogue.
Gbala, who acknowledged some of the demands of the doctors, quickly added that the state government would call the striking doctors to a meeting and address their agitations.
