Dr Oluwole Ige, the Chief Medical Director, University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Ondo, has described the strike embarked upon by resident doctors in the hospital as a calculated attempt to embarrass the state government and the hospital management.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that resident doctors in the hospital had, last Friday, went on an indefinite strike over non-payment of six months’ salaries.
In an interview with newsmen on Sunday in Akure, Ige, however, said the claim of the doctors was untrue, saying the management was not owing any doctor six months’ salary arrears.
He said most of the doctors were being owed one or two months’ salary, contrary to their claim of six months.
The CMD noted that the delay in the payment of salaries being owed some doctors was caused by what he called teething problems associated with new establishments.
He appealed to the striking doctors to return to duty, stressing that arrangement had already been made for the payment of their salary arrears.
“We do not have over bloated workforce as it is being rumoured in some quarters, and that is not preventing us from payment of salaries of our doctors.
“There is no month we don’t pay salaries; we are not in crisis; we are not happy for being in the news for the wrong reasons.
“Imagine those we employed in November joining the protest. The highest we are owing is two or three months to some newly-employed doctors, not all our doctors.
“Payment of salaries to the newly-employed takes administrative processes; we had several meetings and we promised to pay all arrears before the end of next week.
“The strike is uncalled for. It was designed to ridicule and embarrass the management and the state government.
“We have not finished the process of collating what is left from individual salaries; some even resume and leave before the payday. We always ensure they resume and start work properly before we started paying,” he said.
