By vincent ujumadu
DOCTORS in Anambra State have given the state government a month ultimatum to implement the consolidated medical services scheme or be prepared to face strike.

The state chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Dr. Emmanuel Ekwosianya, and secretary, Dr. Titus Chukwuanukwu, said in a statement issued after a meeting of the doctors in Awka that the ultimatum became necessary because Anambra was one of the few states yet to implement the scheme.

According to him, there will be total withdrawal of services by all doctors in Anambra State at the expiration of the grace period.  He added that the grace period serves as a notice to all employers of doctors in the state, including the federal, state, local governments, private and non-governmental organizations.

He appealed to all well -meaning stakeholders in the state to use the grace period to intervene in the matter to avert what he called “this impending avoidable withdrawal of services.”

Ekwosianya insisted that doctors in Anambra State were committed to efficient and high level of health care delivery in the state and urged employers to cooperate with the doctors in achieving the objective.

Vanguard gathered that the strike would have started last week but had to be deferred, following an appeal by the state Commissioner for Health, Prof Amobi Ilika, urging the doctors to give government sometime to look into their demands.