Anambra: COOUTH resident doctors embark on seven-day warning strike

Anambra map

Resident doctors at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital in Awka, Anambra, have started a seven-day warning strike to demand better working conditions.

This is contained in a communique issued at the end of an emergency meeting of the Association of Resident Doctors in the institution held on Wednesday in Awka, the state capital.

The communique titled Notification of Commencement of Industrial Action, signed by Dr Joy Okwumuo and Dr Chukwubuike Ifekudu, President and Secretary of ARD COOUTH, respectively, said that the strike would commence effectively at noon on Thursday.

It said that the strike followed several failed efforts to engage the Anambra government to pay the 100 per cent Medical Residency Training Fund, which it promised to pay from January 2025.

The communique also cited the non-payment of upward-revised CONMESS salary structure, accoutrement, rural posting, specialist and teaching allowances as reasons for the strike.

Other grievances of the association include non-payment of accumulated arrears as well as a shortage of doctors, which they claim has led to overworking of the available resident doctors.

The ARD demanded payment of the MRTF and for the government to gazette the same to forestall the recurrent issues of non-payment. Punch