The Association of Resident Doctors in Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital, Ogbomosho, Oyo, has demanded the implementation of adopted benefits in Federal Tertiary Health Institutions (FTHIs).

In a statement jointly signed by its president, Sope Orugun and general secretary, Stanley Nnara, the association appealed to Governor Seyi Makinde for quick intervention.

It said a quick implementation of these benefits and others would mitigate further emigration of healthcare workers out of the state and demanded the domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act (MRTA) and the implementation of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF).

They attributed the migration of health workers from State Tertiary Health Institutions (STHIs) to FTHIs to the disparity in benefits and conditions of service.

The doctors also demanded increased subvention to LAUTECH teaching hospital, offset of salary arrears owed their members and upward review of the hazard allowance in Oyo as obtained in FTHIs.

The doctors said part of the issues addressed during Mr Makinde’s visit on August 15, 2020, was the domestication of MRTA, which caters for the regulation and funding of residency training programmes in Nigeria.

The association said the act had been well implemented at the federal level since it was passed into law in 2017, and the amount for MRTF is being reviewed upwards.

“As a responsible association, we have engaged all organs of this current administration to right this wrong. However, this has proven difficult in the last one year, as we were only, just recently, able to hand over the Oyo State draft of the Bill for MRTA to the governor personally,” it said.

The association said it had handed the bill to the governor on December 1 during his Ogbomosho town hall meeting, hoping that he would expedite assent to the bill.

“All these shortcomings have made LAUTECH teaching hospital less attractive for training and services, as resident doctors now migrate from most STHIs (LTH inclusive) to FTHIs,” the association stressed. “All these further worsen the already varnishing workforce in most STHIs.”

(NAN)