The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has rejected a House of Representatives bill that would require Nigerian-trained medical and dental practitioners to work for five years before receiving a full licence.

This is contained in a communiqué issued after the association’s emergency National Officers’ Committee (NOC) meeting, which lasted nearly the entire weekend.

The resident doctors are particularly shocked by the bill’s sponsor, Hon. Ganiyu Johnson (APC/Lagos) and his ‘attempts to enslave Nigerian-trained medical doctors’.

Additionally, they decried the Federal Government’s failure to pay their salaries as the current administration winds down.

“We observed with shock and disappointment, the infuriating attempts by Honourable Ganiyu Abiodun Johnson and the Federal House of Representatives to enslave Nigerian-Trained Medical Doctors for five years post-graduation before they can be issued full practising licenses or allowed to travel abroad if they so wished,” the communique read.

“The extended NOC decried the inability of the Federal Government to review the CONMESS salary structure despite several promises, even with the imminent change in Government.”

NARD also expressed concern about the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria’s downgrading of the membership certificates of West African Postgraduate Colleges. (MDCN).

On a positive note, it commended the Ekiti and Bayelsa State Governments for adopting and implementing the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), as well as the Ekiti State Government for paying the reviewed hazards allowance.

It promised to call an extraordinary meeting of the National Executive Council within the next two weeks to review the issues raised and determine the next course of action.

NEW BILL

Sponsored by Ganiyu Johnson (Lagos APC), the bill seeks to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act 2004.

According to him, the bill which has now passed the second reading at the House of Representatives, will address the brain drain in the Nigerian health sector.

Speaking during the plenary last week, Johnson said it was only fair for medical doctors, who enjoyed taxpayer subsidies on their training, to give back to society.

“I noticed there is a heavy decline in medical brain drain from 24,000 to now as we speak we have less than 10,000 doctors in Nigeria, so that is alarming. I now talked to myself and said let us look at our laws.

“I noticed that the vacuum is that immediately after housemanship, most doctors because of greener pastures, there is a capital flight from Nigeria to the UK, to America and all that. Now the government has invested so much money in training these medical doctors.”