The Association of Resident Doctors, Federal Capital Territory (ARD-FCT), has begun a seven-day warning strike over what it described as the collapse of the city’s health system.
Resident doctors are medical school graduates training as specialists. They dominate the emergency wards of hospitals in Nigeria and are crucial to quality healthcare delivery nationwide.
The physicians announced the industrial action in a communique signed by George Ebong, ARD-FCT president, alongside other members of the executive.
They said the health sector in the nation’s capital is plagued by long-standing systemic failures that require comprehensive and urgent reforms.
Ebong said doctors in the FCT are under immense pressure due to inadequate staffing, adding that they are frequently forced to cover multiple departments.
Last month, the doctors’ union had urged the government to speedily address rising challenges in the city’s health sector.
Ebong called for urgent intervention in areas like manpower shortages, non-functional equipment, poor working conditions, and unpaid staff allowances.
He said physicians in the FCT were under immense pressure, frequently covering multiple departments, reiterating that continued neglect could cause systemic collapse.
