States to pay their resident doctors – Minister

Health facilities owned by state governments are to pay the striking residents doctors working for them and not the federal government, Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole has said.

The minister stated this while answering questions from participants at the annual family planning consultative stakeholders meeting in Abuja.

It will be recalled that payment to affected health institutions was part of the renegotiated MoU between the federal government and the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) last week.

The striking doctors were also expected to suspend the strike once there was evidence of payment of the mandate to the affected institutions presented to National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) meeting last Friday.

Prof Adewole said the Federal Government has paid the first batch of affected hospitals, adding that eight hospitals were in the batch.

He said “The Federal Government does not pay state hospitals. It is the state that pays them.”