The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, Kaduna, has suspended its six-day warning strike.

The chapter’s president, Josiah Yakubu, disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Kaduna on Monday.

Mr Yakubu said the suspension followed an emergency congress on Saturday, a series of meetings and interventions, particularly by the national and state leadership of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA).

He said work would resume at the hospital by 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, while other resident doctors there would resume by 10:00 a.m.

Mr Yakubu added that the congress stated that since the commencement of their industrial action, the secretary to the state government had stepped into the situation to arbitrate on behalf of the state government.

According to him, the leadership of the NMA had a follow-up meeting at the instance of the secretary to the Kaduna State government.

”This was unlike our first meeting, where, unfortunately, some of our members were issued with letters of termination of appointment as resident doctors. Some others were given warning letters with a notice of intention to terminate their appointments.

” We have come to understand that the action was unilaterally taken by the management of Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital,” he said.

Mr Yakubu said the meeting with the medical association, which lasted for about two hours, enabled both parties to appreciate the issues of concern.

He said possible solutions were highlighted in a manner that doctors are not shortchanged and the healthcare delivery is not compromised.

Mr Yakubu said the state government had accepted and acknowledged the veracity of all concerns and demands of the doctors and had made a commitment towards addressing them.

He said the SSG appealed for a two-month duration to allow the government to resolve doctors’ concerns about manpower and remuneration.

“A cost implication of the transition from CONMESS 2014 to CONMESS 2024 has been drafted and submitted to the SSG for onward submission to the Governor for consideration.

“A Memorandum of Understanding was jointly drafted to this effect, which the SSG, chairman, NMA Kaduna State, NARD president, president, ARD Kaduna and president, ARD BDTH co-signed.

“The meeting ended with an expectation of these developments to be communicated to the congress of ARD Kaduna and ARD BDTH for appraisal,” Mr Yakubu stated.

He added that the leadership of NMA and NARD would follow up on the entire process until all the demands were met.

(NAN)