Members of the Kogi State Chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) have vowed not to accept the proposed cutting of salaries of its members and other healthcare workers by the Kogi Government.
A statement by the Chairman of the NMA in the state, Dr Kabiru Zubair, in Lokoja on Sunday, said the attention of the NMA had been drawn to the proposed wage cut by the government.
”The NMA is not unaware of the ongoing global pandemic of COVID-19 and the consequent economic downturn. But, the NMA strongly rejects any salary cut for doctors and other health care workers.
”This is because doctors in Kogi State have been getting along on half salary before now, occasioned by the non-implementation of corrected CONMESS -Consolidated Medical Salary Structure.
”Non-implementation of the new minimum wage of N30, 000 and its consequential adjustment, skipping, relativity, promotion and annual step increment.
”The average doctor working with the Kogi State Civil Service is already at a serious financial disadvantage, compared to their counterparts at federal or other states in the federation where salary adjustments have been implemented.”
Zubair stressed that any further cuts of the salaries of doctors and other worker in the state would impoverish them, and accelerate the exodus of doctors from the state’s civil service.
He noted that doctors and other health workers remained foot-soldiers at the fore-front of the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and were being appreciated across the globe.
The chairman noted that the Federal Government had recently increased hazard allowances of health workers from the paltry monthly N5, 000 by 50 per cent, to encourage and retain them to do more for the nation.
”NMA expects Kogi State Government to take similar steps to encourage and retain its health care workers at this time and not to cut wages.
”This is not the time to start losing doctors and other workers, due to salary matters as we are in the middle of a healthcare war that we do not know when it will end.”
He drew the attention of the government to emerging challenges, regarding patients’ management in hospitals as coronavirus community transmission increases.
According to him, feedbacks from NMA members in various hospitals reveal that it is becoming difficult to manage patients with other clinical conditions without first excluding COVID-19 patients coming from high-risk states such as Lagos, Kano and the FCT.
”It is no longer news that over 100 health workers have been infected by this virus and some have paid the supreme price. Hence, most hospitals are on red alert and consider all patients as potential carriers of COVID-19.
”Because of this high level of suspicions, doctors prefer to detect COVID-19 in patients before proceeding to manage them for their clinical conditions.
”The inability of the state to test or follow laid down protocols in order to exclude COVID-19 patient may lead to needless death of patients presenting other clinical conditions, due to neglect by health workers.
”It should be noted that if doctors should attend to one unknown case of COVID-19 in the hospital settings, it may spread to many health workers and their families.”
Zubair advised the government to open channels for testing, to mitigate escalation of COVID-19, advising health workers to be on guard and resist any attempt to attend to patients without observing necessary precautions.
Doctors in Ogun State under the auspices of Association of Resident Doctors, Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) have declared a three- day warning strike.
The strike begins on Sunday after a 21- day ultimatum and another seven-day ultimatum notifying State Government on the needs for appropriate remuneration for doctors in OOUTH as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
The President of the association, Dr. Mutiu Popoola, announced this in a statement titled: Protect and appreciate doctors who put up their lives on line during this pandemic COVID-19 in Shagamu, Ogun State.
He said: “We have been on this struggle for appropriate remuneration for over four years and it is unfortunate that government’s unwilling attitude to the welfare of doctors in OOUTH is unbecoming”.
Popoola said that there has been no commitment whatsoever from the government on the issue of appropriate remuneration, entry level, new minimum wage, hazard allowance and life insurance for our members.
He said that “despite the inadequate response of Ogun State Government to the health risks confronted by our members during this COVID-19 pandemic, our members went ahead to continue their work diligently in their various departments and at the isolation centre.
“We were taken aback by the arbitrary change in only hazard allowance to be given as COVID -19 Special Hazard Allowance to all health workers.
“The 200% increase in Hazard allowance is just an increase from N5000 to N15,000 for just the month of April,” he said.
The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) has cautioned Nigerians on the partial lifting of lockdown directives by the Federal Government.
Dr Lanre Olosunde, the Chairman of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), gave the advice on Sunday during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ilorin.
Olosunde lamented that the partial lifting of lockdown was not the best choice at the moment.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had announced the gradual phasing out of the country’s lockdown in the FCT-Abuja, Ogun and Lagos States from May 4.
The president ordered for a gradual easing of the lockdown order while putting additional measures in place to address the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the country.
However, the ARD chairman said: “I think it is not the best choice at this time when we are really seeing the evidence of active community spread of COVID-19.
“This is coupled with the fact that our testing capabilities are still far below what is required.
“I sincerely pray we won’t get to the number of the deaths recorded in Italy or that of United States,” he said.
Olosunde therefore advised Nigerians to follow the advice of medical experts on prevention of COVID-19.
He said those who were elderly or those at any age who have underlying chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), HIV and cancer, among others, need to take extra precautions and if possible stay at home because they are the most vulnerable to this disease.
He said people should beware that COVID-19 is deadly, adding that we have seen what it has done to people in other climes.
The ARD chairman however pointed out that the fear of COVID-19 should rather drive all of us to behave responsibly and follow laid down rules to ensure the prevention of spread and not to panic.
“Everyone should also be prepared for another round of possible lock downs if cases continue to increase exponentially,” he advised.
Kaduna Governor Mallam Nasiru El-Rufa’i has again spoken of his traumatic experience while knocked down by coronavirus, saying that he could have died but for his doctors.
El-Rufai, who spoke in a Hausa Radio programme on Wednesday, said he went through trauma and battled with debilitating headache while he addressed the state from isolation.
The Governor noted he was the first to suffer from the virus in Kaduna state and Allah knows why.
According to him: “I could have died, if not for my doctors. I followed their instructions strictly and took my medications.
“My wives collaborated with Dr Hadiza, the Deputy Governor and seized my phones while in isolation. I was only left with an iPad, the device I used to read and go online.
“I survived it, someone else may not, that is why we are very serious about the disease.
“I went through trauma, even when I spoke online from isolation, I was battling with a debilitating headache. I won’t like even my enemy to suffer from coronavirus.”
He added: “I can’t exactly say how I contracted the coronavirus. But I was in Abuja and had interacted with many people, some from overseas.
“I was assigned to chair committees by the government. I believe it was from these interactions that I got the virus.”
While advising strict compliance with public health guidelines on prevention of the virus, Governor El-Rufai said: “Despite the security around me, I got the virus. This goes to show that the virus does not recognise any personality.”
Speaking on why he returned to his clean shave looks, El-Rufai said: “I’m truly aging. I am a few steps above 60 and this disease is not kind to the old. I am old. That is the danger.
“If one is above 50, one should be very careful not to contract the virus. To an aged person with other health complications like diabetes, hypertension, coronavirus will be very deadly.
“When I came out from isolation, I intended to leave my beard because it was the tradition of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, (May the peace and blessings of Allah be with him). But as I visited my mother to greet her, she was against my new look.
“She asked me to shave. According to her, my father was not bearded during his lifetime.
“I had no option but to shave my beard because I want to live peacefully with my mother.”
Doctors in the U.S., the world’s worst hit country by the coronavirus have found a new symptom for the virus.
The symptom lies in the toes or fingers of the afflicted, especially in white people.
It is called the Covid toe. The good part is that it appears in both asymptomatic and severe cases.
The World Health Organisation listed fever, tiredness, dry cough, aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat and diarrhea as the virus’s common symptoms.
Now the U.S. doctors said purple and swollen toes that look like they’ve been frostbitten may be the latest indication of coronavirus infection.
The symptom could be the latest indication that one should get tested for coronavirus.
The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) launched a registry last week to track the dermatological effects that COVID-19 virus patients may be experiencing and received over 200 submissions from healthcare providers as of Wednesday afternoon.
Dr. Esther Freeman, a dermatologist and epidemiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a faculty member at Harvard medical school, is managing the registry in collaboration with the AAD.
Freeman said around half of the cases in the registry note these lesions in the hands or feet that resemble frostbite.
Others symptoms include anosmia, or a loss of smell.
Conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye, is another symptom.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology recently suggested it could be a sign of the virus.
The Medical Guild says three of its members at Alimosho General Hospital and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, had tested positive for COVID-19.
Dr Oluwajimi Sodipo and Dr Ismail Ajibowo, Chairman and Secretary of the guild respectively, made this known on Thursday in Lagos on the Instagram account of the guild.
Medical Guild is an umbrella body of doctors under the employment of the Lagos State Government.
Sodipo and Ajibowo said that the three doctors had been admitted at different isolation facilities in Lagos for treatment.
They said that the medical conditions of their three members were stable, and were enjoying the support of the guild.
The guild leaders also said that the doctors at Alimosho General Hospital, Ikorodu General Hospital, Lagos General Hospital and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) had been exposed to COVID-19 cases.
“Since the incident, we have been working with our representatives in those centres, and the Medical Directors of the facilities to ensure testing of those involved.
“This is with a plan for care in the unfortunate incident of positive cases,” they said.
The guild leaders said that they would engage the state government on the need to designate all doctors as the frontline workers, provide them with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and incentives due to risks they were exposed to.
They expressed optimism that the engagement with the government would be favourable.
The leaders warned medical doctors against attending to patients without adequate PPE, due to the community transmission and varying symptoms of COVID-19, stressing that all patients were COVID-19 suspects.
“We should also adopt rational use of PPEs, while adopting the slogan of ‘No PPE, No work,” Sodipo and Ajibowo said.
They expressed the guild’s appreciation for the enormous sacrifice and efforts that members were making in the fight against COVID-19.
“This is in spite of the serious risk to everyone of us, and most, especially our families and the loved ones,” the guild leaders said.
According to them, regular update will be made to members, appealing that unity of purpose was needed in handling the present situation and urged members to stay safe in the course of their duties.
By John Chuks Azu, Destiny Obiakoeze and Ediri Oyibo
More doctors are likely to leave Nigeria as Coronavirus (COVID-19) gets worse in the United States of America (USA). This would be in addition to an estimated 9million Nigerians who left the country between 2014 and 2018.
As the COVID-19 pandemic takes its toll across the globe, health officials in the US had warned that the country’s coronavirus death toll could rise above 100,000 people. As a result of this development, instead of shutting its door against migrants as it did previously, America is luring foreign medical professionals seeking to work in their country.
Following reports in March that US was inviting medical professionals from other parts of the world, including Nigeria, to help in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed thousands of lives in that country, the president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Francis Faduyile, said people had the right to work anywhere they chose. He, however, called on the government to strengthen the country’s health system to encourage more medical practitioners to stay behind.
This is even as inquiries at the US Embassy showed that only doctors and nurses who are already processing exchange and visitor programmes in the US are encouraged to seek the visa approval now. But potentially, this could impact negatively on the Nigerian health sector, as in the last five years, many doctors, among millions of other Nigerians, have left the country for greener pastures.
Already, the US health system relies heavily on immigrants, who make up 17 per cent of all health care workers and more than one in four doctors, according to a report.
Dr Joe Uba, a medical doctor with the Abia State Government, said he was looking forward to relocating from the country like many of his colleagues.
He identified Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom (UK) as the preferred destinations for his colleagues.
However, with the growing interest of the US on foreign medical professionals, priorities will begin to change for Nigerian doctors, who are yearning to leave for greener pastures.
“I think every doctor would like to leave if given the opportunity. It is the cost of moving that is the problem. You could spend not less than N2.5 million to process it. But they pay very well, especially in Saudi Arabia,” Dr Uba said.
Also, Joseph Simon (not real name), an Abuja-based lawyer, has just returned from the UK, where he registered for an LL.M programme. He hopes to stay back there after studies.
“My short visit to London was to understand the procedure to relocate. I can only return to Nigeria if things improve. The best way is through the master’s programme,” he said, citing UK’s new policy which allows postgraduates to stay up to two years after graduation in search of jobs.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that 1,361,580 individuals left the country in 2014. In 2015, 2,640,508 also left.
In 2016, the figure of emigrants dropped to 1,181,211, but rose marginally to 1,344,318 in 2017 and increased to 2,322,585 in 2018. (Kindly use landscape mode to get a better view of all infographics if you are using a mobile device).
While the number of departures recorded for the country between 2014 and 2018 may not be permanent, the figure is higher than the numbers between 2005 and 2010, which remained between 900,000 and 100,000 migrants.
Data analysis of Nigerians leaving for greener pastures showed that people leaving the country are not restricted to skilled individuals. Even the unskilled are leaving the country in droves from both regular and irregular means.
Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, uses thermal imaging to screen passengers for coronavirus on on January 27, 2019. It’s not clear whether such screening methods will be able to stop the spread of coronavirus in the United States, but experts say it may slow down the virus a bit. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
For instance, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) reported that about 2,894 persons were rescued from irregular migrations between 2014 and 2018. Of this figure, 330 cases were reported in 2014; 285 in 2015; 320 in 2016; 1104 in 2017; and 855 in 2018.
These were persons who were involved in sexual exploitation outside Nigeria, external prostitution, forced labour outside Nigeria, armed conflict, illegal immigration and smuggling.
According to the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), about 4,364,668 Nigerians were issued with new passports between 2014 and 2018. But besides being a national identification and travel data, this indicates travel source states or regular departure points of most Nigerians.
A breakdown of passports issued between 2014 and 2018 showed that the South-West has the highest number, at 650,958 new passports issued. Lagos has the highest number (1,264,528), followed by Oyo (233,004), Ogun (166,920), Osun (109,016), Ondo (91,161) and Ekiti (50,857).
The South-South came second, with Edo topping at 172,435 new passports. About 158,304 received their passports from Delta, while 157,177 received in Rivers, followed by Akwa Ibom (41,042), Bayelsa (38,100) and Cross River (26,806).
The North-West came third with 484,766. Kano received 169,941 within the period while Kaduna got 110,856; Katsina, 68,132; Jigawa, 40,793; Sokoto, 36,932; Kebbi, 29,735 and Zamfara, 28,377.
In the South-East, Enugu and Imo received the fourth highest number of new passports issued, at 440,228. While Imo had 126,049, Enugu was second with 99,416. Others are Anambra (97,579), Abia (95,236) and Ebonyi (22,008).
In the North-Central, 320,024 new passports were issued. Out of this number, Plateau had 109,016 while Niger had 77,354. Others are Kwara (71,565), Kogi (28,766), Benue (17,890) and Nasarawa (15,433).
Also, 511,059 new passports were issued in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
In the same period, the North-East had 137,332 new passports. Borno recorded the highest number with 29,977, followed by Gombe (26,965). Others are Adamawa (26,157), Bauchi (25,026) and Taraba (15,852).
Major destinations for Nigerians
Reports show that countries such as USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Cameroun, Italy, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin Republic, Australia, UAE and Canada are top destinations for skilled Nigerians, while some European and Asian countries are top destinations for Nigerians without much skills.
The Canadian government estimates that Nigeria ranks third in the countries that have received the highest number of Canadian Express Entry in 2018 under the ITA scheme, which is usually offered to software engineers and developers, behind China and India in second and first respectively. While 6,025 Nigerians received the offer, 6,248 Chinese and 41,675 India received it the same year respectively.
Canada welcomed 341,000 immigrants in 2019 under its skilled labour programme; about 10,000 of them are Nigerians. It is a steady increase as only 2,000 Nigerians were received in 2015; 4,000 in 2016; 6,000 in 2017; 8,000 in 2018 and 10,000 in 2019.
With the US visa ban on Nigeria in place, more Nigerians are expected to head north in the coming years. However, with the recent US demand for foreign medical professionals, Nigerian doctors and nurses may likely use the window of opportunity. Canada is projected to welcome 700,000 immigrants as permanent residents before the end of this year, which makes it an attractive destination for Nigerians of all categories.
The National Diaspora Commission estimates that between 5 million and 15 million Nigerians now live abroad. And some of the best brains go to these countries.
Presidency earlier raises alarm over refusal of Reps to be screened at Airports
Although there are concerns of loss of skilled workers in critical sectors of Nigeria’s economy, the NBS figures showed that as Nigerians left the country in droves within the last five years, remittances from the Diaspora has risen steadily to $25.08bn in 2019, up from $3bn in 2013.
Leaving for greener pastures
The serious economic hardship in the country has been pointed out as the major reason for the departures. Specifically, migrations are spiked by the high unemployment rate, which the NBS put at 23.13 per cent in quarter three of 2018, with a steady increase from 12.5 per cent in 2014.
Other factors include insecurity and poor infrastructure to support decent living, over taxation, high poverty rate, population explosion, climate change and environmental degradation, corruption, low access to credit, absence of meritocracy in public appointments, poor public health system, poor remuneration for workers, and among others.
Similarly, the World Data Lab, in its latest update, found that of the 201,623,008 total population of Nigeria, 95,903,776 people, representing 48 per cent of the population live in extreme poverty, which is defined to mean that they earn less than $2 a day.
Chilaka Anthony, a travel agent and frequent traveller, identified the economic situation in the country as the major reason more Nigerians are leaving the country. He disclosed that the situation is so critical that parents who fund their children’s studies overseas in international universities encourage them to find a way to stay back in those countries.
“The economic situation in the country has deteriorated, to the extent that we don’t know what to say. Many that pretend to be travelling for studies are actually intending to leave the country for good,” he said.
Also, Hillary Anosike, who has a business centre at the Chinese Visa Centre, said a lot of Nigerians travelled to China to buy cheaper goods and return to sell because of the high manufacturing rate in that country. He believes that the goods from China, which are cheap and competitive, are helping to sustain livelihoods for Nigerians who run small shops.
Writing on how climate change has affected migration, Ochiaka Ugwu, a journalist, stated that many people who engaged in agriculture in Nigeria had been forced to leave due to desertification, receding rivers, streams and lakes.
“Look at the herders-farmers clashes. Because streams and grasses are drying and pastures are disappearing, they are moving to locations where lands are greener, and in the process, they clash with farmers,” he stated.
But as more Nigerians leave the country, other nationals find it attractive. Nigeria is becoming a major economic host country for some intraregional migrants within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with low skills. This has been projected to increase, given the recent Federal Government’s new visa-on-arrival policy, which was recently suspended as a result of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.
Nigeria’s loss, others’ gain
At the launch of the Nigeria Health Workforce Country Profile, 2018 and handover of the Nigeria Health Workforce Registry by the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners, Human Resources for Health, Ministry of Health, Shakuri Kadiri, said Nigeria had only one doctor to 2,753 patients. He put the number of medical doctors registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria at 74,543; implying that there are 36.3 medical doctors per 100,000 population.
Of these registered medical practitioners in Nigeria, many have left the country due to the unconducive environment for practice. And the situation is expected to worsen with the recent US enticement.
A 2019 survey showed that about 2,000 Nigerian doctors leave annually. This has caused substandard medical care for Nigerian patients. The growing medical tourism by Nigerians, with a huge impact on foreign exchange, has been directly attributed to this.
The spokesman of the NIS, James Sunday, a Deputy Comptroller of Immigration, said travellers provided different reasons for their trips, but in some cases, as humans, what they gave as reasons may not actually be the reason for the travel.
He added that the responsibility of the NIS is just to capture individuals’ data and cross-check if there are criminal objections to their trips. He explained that once such criteria are met, they are allowed to go, as it would be against their fundamental rights to do otherwise.
“If you fall within the eligibility category for immigration, we allow you to travel,” he said.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) rates Nigeria as one of the largest origins of international migrants.
“Nigeria has continued to experience high internal and external migration due to its population, economic climate and porous borders,” IOM stated on its website.
On the way forward, a professor of Political Science in the University of Abuja, Yusuf Ali Zoaka, said the solution for the perennial issue of Nigerians leaving the country for greener pastures was to develop the country and put in place, “necessary facilities” that would keep Nigerians in their country. He said government should develop the country by creating the necessary facilities.
Also, the director, Centre for China Studies, Charles Onunaiju, said necessary incentives and creating the enabling environment for creativity, research and professionalism in Nigeria would encourage more professionals and other citizens to stay back and even attract the best brains outside the country.
“It is important for the government to entrench a system where merit, rather than where a person comes from, determines their position,” Onunaiju said.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said government had started working to obtain accurate data on the existing health workforce in the country to facilitate human resource for health planning, and thereby deliver efficient, effective and high quality health services to citizens.
He stated this at the launch of the Nigeria Health Workforce Country Profile 2018 and handover of the Nigeria Health Workforce Registry by his ministry.
This report was supported by Code for Africa, via its Academy Hacks/Hackers Community Initiative
Members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba, Delta State have withdrawn their services indefinitely over alleged harassment by security operatives enforcing lockdown directive.
The lockdown order was issued by the state government as a measure to prevent the spread of the dreaded Coronavirus disease otherwise known as COVID-19.
President of the ARD, Asaba FMC chapter, Osifo Patrick Nwabunor at a press briefing in Asaba maintained that since the lockdown started on April 1, Health workers have been subjected to constant harassment by the police even when they present valid means of identification as essential service providers.
Nwabunor alleged that the harassment came to a climax on Thursday when a doctor who was going for an emergency, was stopped and harassed, adding that when other colleagues came to his rescue, they were allegedly tear-gassed.
He said as a result of the constant harassment, the doctors were embarking “total shutdown of their services indefinitely until our safety and security is guaranteed.”
Nwabunor stated that the association was not callous to embark on the indefinite strike in the midst of COVID-19 crisis, but that they cannot continue to discharge their duties in an environment of constant threats and insecurity.
“These are challenging times in view of the COVID-19 but if our safety is not guaranteed, we will maintain the total shutdown,” he stated.
Nwabunor listed three conditions including that no health worker should be harassed when he/she presents a valid means of identification; that items destroyed during the Okpanam issue should be replaced; and that adequate security should be provided within the confines of the hospital, before they would return to work.
He also raised alarm about the paucity of protective kits for front line health workers across both federal and state hospitals, and appealed to the authorities to provide the kits and as well as increase the hazard allowance for front line care givers.
As the coronavirus scourge bites harder in Britain, retired doctors and nurses have been drafted to help contain the pandemic.
Just last week two young health workers had died due to over exposure to covid-19 patients.
Two nurses die after contracting coronavirus, and it has emerged that nurses and frontline health workers are being offered grief counselling and psychological support, with the loss of more NHS lives anticipated.
Areema Nasreen, a 36-year-old NHS nurse from Walsall in the West Midlands, who was believed to have had no underlying health issues, died shortly after midnight on Thursday in intensive care at Walsall Manor hospital, where she had worked for 16 years.
Tributes were also paid to another NHS nurse, named locally as mother of three Aimee O’Rourke, who is is believed to have contracted the virus before she died. She was described as “a wonderful friend and colleague” to those who worked with her at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital in Margate, Kent.
To further help to fight the scourge, retired health personnel have been drafted to support health workers on ground.
It became apparent last Saturday that the shortage of medical personnel in Britain would lead to more deaths as this development necessitated the deployment of retired medical experts.
A medical expert(name withheld) privy to this development told TNG that most medical personnel due for retirement have started giving their retirement notice to avoid the pandemic.
“Those of us still active are just praying for God’s grace because there are no enough protective kits to go round those of us on duty.
“By next week we are expected to resume by 7am and close by 7pm on a daily basis and we do not have enough manpower to man these hospitals.
Barley two weeks ago the British had converted the ExCel centre to a hospital with a massive morgue to enable it further contain the virus.
Amidst fears of Coronavirus disease [COVID-19] pandemic, the management of Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) Makurdi has issued over 30 Residents Doctors sack letters.
BSUTH is one of the isolation centres in the state for the management of Covid-19 pandemic.
The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) BSUTH Makurdi, in a press statement issued yesterday and signed by its President Dr. Amina Japhet Onyewuchi and PRO Dr. Sesugh Matthew Iorfa, said the sack does “not follow the laws regulating the service of resident doctors in Nigeria” and is rather “a disservice to the suffering people of Benue State”.
According to the statement, the 2017 Medical Residency Training Act (MRTA) “allows resident doctors to train and pass all examinations over an eight and half to nine year period as against the six years that the management of Benue State University Teaching Hospital wants to impose” on its resident doctors.
The statement further adds that none of the resident doctors at BSUTH is included on the list of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN), a body which regulates residency in the country for exit and questions where the management of BSUTH got powers to sack them.
ARD BSUTH also accused management of ignoring its role of sponsorship of resident doctors for update of courses and examination as well as refusal to take into account the period of non-accreditation/loss of accreditation.
While calling for immediate withdrawal of the sack letters and reinstatement of those already sacked; the adoption and full implementation of the 2017 MRTA as it is obtainable in other training institutions across the country, ARD BSUTH warned that failure to do so after 21 days they “will have no choice than to opt for an indefinite strike action”.
“It is our belief that within these 21 days of our ultimatum, the amiable Executive Governor of Benue State Dr. Samuel Ortom, His Royal Majesty Orchivirigh Professor J. O. Ayatse, Tor Tiv, the Och’Idoma His Royal Majesty Agabaidu Elias Ekoyi Obekpa, and all other well-meaning sons and daughters of Benue State will prevail on the management of Benue State University Teaching Hospital to yield to these, in the interest of residency training, the medical profession and the healthcare of our people,” the statement concluded.
