The National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, at exactly noon yesterday, made good its threat as members complied with the indefinite strike order issued by the National Executive Council, NEC, on Tuesday night.NARD embarked on the strike, despite the intervention of speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, who met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday night, urging him to wade into the matter, with a view to addressing the issues at stake.Although the Federal Government said it was already looking into the demands of the striking resident doctors towards effecting a speedy resolution, NARD said the government was yet to call them for a meeting, insisting that government’s response would determine how long the strike would last.As of 12:30 pm when Vanguard visited some of the affected tertiary health institutions in Lagos yesterday, the doctors had left their consulting rooms, as only consultants and student doctors were attending to a few patients that were caught unawares by the industrial action.While most of the patients who spoke to Vanguard said they had already been attended to before 12 noon, others bemoaned the fact that they were not able to beat the time of the strike and were asked to come back next time.“We know the peculiarities and the dangers in the declaration of strike. But, I am sorry that this is the only language government understands.â€
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