PRESIDENT of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Kayode Obembe, on Wednesday, hinted that striking doctors in the country may call off their protracted strike any moment from now.

Obembe, who gave the hint after a prolonged meeting with the Senate President, David Mark, which lasted from Tuesday night till the early hours of Wednesday, said the meeting was “useful and successful.”

Senator Mark had met with the striking doctors alongside the Delta State governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, himself a medical doctor; Senator Tunde Ogbeha and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okukpe, also a medical doctor, on Tuesday, following the initial meeting held on Sunday.

A statement by the media office of the Senate President indicated that the closed door meeting had breakthroughs.

The statement quoted Mark as reminding the doctors of the implications of the strike to the health of the citizens, if it was not brought to an end.

He also reminded them that the government had complied with a reasonable number of their demands.

The statement quoted Obembe as saying that he would not give the exact date and time when the strike would be called off, until he reported to his members since, according to him, “the meeting with the Senate President is very useful and successful.”

Obembe also clarified that the striking doctors did not abandon the nation in this trying times of major heath challenge, on account of the outbreak of Ebola virus disease, adding that “there was never a time we refused to respond to national emergency, we have been alive to our duties as professionals and to our fatherland.”