By Ola Ajayi
THE fate of many patients in government hospitals across the country hangs in the balance as the National Association of Resident Doctors converge on Ibadan to take a final decision on the impending strike slated for next week.

The resident doctors as reliably gathered, may call out their members across the country to down tools, following the alleged failure of the Federal Government to fulfil its own part of the agreement signed to improve on the working conditions of the doctors.

The union had about two weeks ago warned the FG to save thousands of patients in our hospitals the agony of another indefinite strike by attending to their demand.

It lamented that “the pitiable condition of doctors is no longer enviable to people and even the civil servants. Doctors now work in banks and other places because of the poor pay that government offers. We should not forget that we have one doctor to about 30,000 Nigerians.

According to him, “We are saying the government should give us a separate salary scale that would accommodate all our peculiarities. Apart from the rigorous work we do, we don’t go on leave; you work day and night. It is a very high risk job. We are exposed to AIDS and another thing that doctors do is breaking a bad news everyday.”

According to the President, Association of Resident Doctors, UCH branch, Dr. Olayinka Atilola, the lackadaisical attitude of the government to health sector and some other burning issues will be discussed by resident doctors drawn from secondary and tertiary health institutions across the country.

The former Minister of Health, Prof. Adenike Grange is expected to be the guest lecturer on the occasion with the theme, “Nigerian Children: A future in Peril”. The meeting will also examine the state of the Nigerian child, vis-à-vis, the social, economic, cultural and political factors that have contributed to the current perilous state of Nigerian children.

On the likely number of patients that would be affected by the strike, he explained that he could not get the figure but added that “there is no given time we don’t have more than 600-800 patients on admission. You can use that to get the rough figure of patients we have all over the country”.

On the inability of the state to pay, he cited an example saying “If Oyo State says it cannot employ more than three doctors as a result of the salary structure it should use the salary structure to determine the number of doctors it can employ”.