Nigerian doctors on Tuesday turned out in large numbers for an interview being conducted by a consultancy firm, Meeds Consultancy, in Abuja for vacancies in Saudi Arabian hospitals.
The firm organised the interview on behalf of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health, The PUNCH reported on Wednesday.
Medical doctors in various fields such as anaesthesia, ICU, paediatrics and surgery, family medicine and others stormed the venue for the interview scheduled to start by 7am.
It was gathered that those who arrived at the large hall had difficulty in getting seats due to the massive turnout.
Some of the doctors, who spoke to The PUNCH, lamented the poor conditions of service, poor investment in the health sector, inconsistent salary payments, among others.
A medical consultant, Ahmadu Balarabe, who works at a teaching hospital in the North-West, stated, “Look around you, I am sure you can see old people here. This is the situation we have found ourselves in this country. We cannot continue to work in a degraded health system.
“Let us even talk about the NARD strike. These young doctors have been on strike and the next thing the government does is to sue them. Where is this done?”
“Most of them (government officials) don’t care about the sector, because they know they can disappear to foreign countries. Well, we are also going to join them.
Another doctor, who did not want her name in print, said the only way the government would attend to the issues in the health sector was for the citizens to march to the seat of power.
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She stated, “When Nigerians are ready, they will march to Aso Rock and demand responsibility from this government. The President travels out to take care of his health, meanwhile, the health sector is dying back home.
“The interview is a week-long process. Today, as you can see, we are filling forms. There are other processes. I have not been briefed yet, but we have been told that the process is for a week.”
Meanwhile, resident doctors are currently on indefinite strike over failure of the Federal Government to pay salaries of house officers and fulfill its previous agreements, amid other demands.
Efforts by the government to ensure the doctors resume work inview of the spreading coronavirus infection had not been successful.
The union’s President, Dr. Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, had said, “We are embarking on a total and indefinite strike on August 2, 2021. You can recall we had a memorandum of action on March 31, 2021, and had an addendum to it on April 9, and since then, we still have had irregularities in the payment of salaries to the house officers.
“We had issues with them being non-regular payment and as part of the memorandum of action, it was said that they should be captured back into the IPPS platform.”
