Resident doctors ask FG to pay members training funds before end of 2021 fiscal year

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has appealed to the federal government to take necessary measures not to omit the 2020 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) to all its members before the 2021 fiscal year ends in March 2022.

The association made the observation on Sunday after the meeting of its National Executive Council (NEC) in Abuja.

Dr. Dare Godiya Ishaya and Dr. Suleiman Abiodun Isma’il, President and Secretary-General respectively, in a communique, noted that some members were yet to receive payment of their omitted 2020 MRTF, saying that the government had paid the withheld August and September 2021 salaries to her members, and the 2021 MRTF.

According to the communique, “It is also our desire that the payment of the 2022 MRTF be concluded before the March/April/May 2022 post-graduate examinations to enable the judicious use of these funds by our members.”

The communique called on the government, the Nigeria Governors Forum, stakeholders and well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the governors of Abia, Imo, Ondo and Ekiti states to as a matter of urgency pay arrears of salaries and allowances owed her members in the state tertiary health institutions, saying that it has become inhuman and embarrassing.

The association also advised the federal government on the need to take steps towards curtailing medical brain drain.

It expressed concern on the acute manpower shortage in most tertiary health institutions, explaining that it is as a result of the ongoing massive medical brain drain and the attendant burnout effects on her members.