The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: Doctors

  • FG opposes bill to stop doctors’ migration

    FG opposes bill to stop doctors’ migration

    The Federal Government, Monday, kicked against the bill before the National Assembly seeking to control the migration of doctors for greener pastures abroad.

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, expressed the objection while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the extraordinary Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Responding to a question on the threat of doctors to go on a five-day warning strike over what they perceived as the attempt to compulsorily keep medical and dental graduates in the country for five years before granting the licence to practice, Ngige said the bill will go against extant Labour laws.

    The sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives, Ganiyu Johnson, representing Lagos State, had explained that the move was to check the mass exodus of medical professionals from the country.

    The legislation is titied: “A Bill for an Act to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, Cap. M379, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to mandate any Nigeria-trained medical or dental practitioner to practise in Nigeria for a minimum of five years before being granted a full licence by the council to make quality health services available to Nigeria; and for related matters.”

    Following the introduction of the bill, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) had vowed that it will resist any attempt to enslave Nigerian medical doctors under any guise.

    The association has announced a plan to embark on a five-day warning strike with the immediate withdrawal of the bill as one of its demands.

    Other demands are an immediate increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure to the tune of 200 per cent of the current gross salaries of doctors, the immediate implementation of CONMESS, domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act, and review of hazard allowance by all the state governments as well as private tertiary health institutions where any form of residency training is done; among others.

    But Senator Ngige said, “Nobody can say they (doctors) will not get a practising licence till after five years. It will run counter to the laws of the land that have established the progression in the practice of medicine.

    “I am a medical doctor. When you graduate from medical school, you go on a one-year apprenticeship called housemanship or internship as the case maybe. After your internship, you are now given a full licence because prior to that, what you have is a provisional licence of registration with the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).

    “So, after that intensive training, you were signed off by consultants and you became a fully qualified medical doctor to attend to human beings and to work without any supervision again. Supervision then is voluntary.

    “Resident Doctors are those who have that full licence and they want to acquire post-graduate speciality and speciality is known like surgeon, gynecologists, obstetrics, paediatrics and internal medicine of family medicine. So, they are doctors in training.

    “The Bill in National Assembly cannot stop anybody from getting a full licence. That bill is a private members’ bill.

    “In the National Assembly, they attend to private members’ bills and executive bills. Executive bills emanate from the government into the National Assembly with the stamp of the executive.

    “It is either sent by the Attorney General of the Federation or by the President but usually from the Attorney General of the Federation. So, it’s not an executive bill, it’s a private members bill.

    “That bill is moved by the man from Lagos. So, members of his constituency can tell him this is worrying us. Can’t we check these doctors this way by you going to speak than put up a document?

    “That document is as far as I am concerned not workable. Ab initio, I don’t support it and I will never support it. Like I said before, it is like killing a fly with a sledgehammer.

    “They should think of other ways if they are trying to check brain drain, there should be other ways.

    “If a doctor has read on scholarship, you bond him, if a doctor has read on bursary you can bond him. If a doctor is trained like we are doing now on little or nothing which is like scholarship again because N50,000 a session per medical student is nothing when their counterparts oversees pay seventy thousand pounds for a session.

    “So, I don’t support that bill but can bond them if you want.”

    On warning strike threatened by NARD, the Minister said it is not necessary since government was already engaged with the NMA, their umbrella body.

    Ngige explained: “On the demand for 200 percent salary increase, the NMA is the father of all doctors in Nigeria and they have about four or five affiliates of which the resident doctors is an association affiliating there.

    “You have the Medical and Dental Consultants Association (MEDCAN), they are the consultants who are training these medical doctors to become specialists. You also have general medical practitioners association and you also have doctors working in the private sector

    “So, NMA is the father of all including me. So, NMA is discussing with the Federal Ministry of Health, salaries income and wages commission and the Ministry of Labour and we know that NMA has accepted a salary increase between 25 and 30 per cent across board for their members.

    “So, I don’t know the logic by which people who are members of NMA are now coming up to say pay us 200 percent increase. I don’t understand it.

    “I have called the NMA President to contact them because on the issue of remuneration negotiation, it’s NMA that the government deals with. So, I have told the President of NMA to contact them and we will engage them. They should not go on any strike, it’s not necessary.”

    Ngige also said that FEC approved the Universal Implementation of the Employee Compensation Act (ECA) 2010 following a memorandum presented by his ministry.

    He explained that the law is operated by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), noting that it is a replacement of the old Employee Compensation Act that was known as “Workmen Compensation.”

    According to him, the Council has approved it for universal implementation, “meaning that apart from private sector, that is already implementing, the public sector, which is government; federal, state and local governments, have now to adopt this for the protection of their workers.”

    He further stated: “The Act provides that the worker who is injured or had an accident or contacted a disease or disabled or dead in the course of work, should be compensated, remunerated and even the family, pay something when the man is no longer there. It didn’t make provision for some of the children to be schooled or educated, up to the age of 21.

    “So today is a good day for the Nigerian workers because the decent work agenda that is contained in Convention102 of the ILO has a major branch on what they call workers’ protection in the course of work.

    “So this is the law and Nigeria has today directed that all workers in the ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government should be covered with a percentage contribution. It’s an insurance premium, 1% of remuneration. You pay it and it insures your worker against these workplace accident injuries.

    “That is what the Council passed today and directed the Minister of Finance and the Budget Office of the Federation to make provision for it in annual budget as social contributions. Under the subject of Social Contributions in our annual appropriation, as of today, you only have two items there; number one is Pension Contribution of employers. Second one is the Health Insurance Scheme by the employer.”

    Vanguard

  • Resident Doctors turn down FG’s Memorandum of Understanding

     

    Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has distanced itself from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) drafted by the Federal Government and vehemently refused to sign the document as a commitment to ending its ongoing industrial action.

     

    The association described the MoU as a veiled punishment for doctors, who are to bear the brunt of government’s failures.

    Resident doctors on August 1 commenced a strike over alleged failure of the Federal Government to implement an agreement bordering on salaries and allowances.

     

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had dragged the association before the National Industrial Court to adjudicate on the matter.

     

    The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), on Friday, led the resident doctors to a meeting summoned at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari to resolve the nationwide strike.

     

     

     

    Briefing newsmen, yesterday, after the meeting with representatives of the Federal Government in Abuja, NARD National President, Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, said he could not sign the MoU as a result of an undisclosed clause.

     

    “We rejected the MoU; we didn’t sign it because we feel we are being punished for the failures of those in government.”

     

    He announced the nationwide strike would continue and the association would continue with the court case.

     

    Uyilawa, however, disclosed NARD leadership would have to present the new MoU to its members before he could sign the document.

     

    On his part, Ngige said all other unions in the negotiation, including the NMA and the Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria have signed the new agreement.

     

    The minister said the meeting did not discuss the issue of ‘No Work No Pay’ but that all parties at the meeting agreed to an out-of-court settlement. He said the Federal Government would begin implementation of the MoU today.

     

    “The meeting agreed we need to let this matter go. Therefore, the budget office of the federation should start from the 2021 service vote to start paying. And if we have any leftovers, we roll it into 2022.

     

    “Coming to hazard allowance, everybody agreed the discussion is still ongoing and therefore the government wants to finish it up. We agreed with the NMA position that they don’t want to discuss holistically anymore as an association and that they have their own peculiarities that are not the same with other health workers.

     

    “We are going to do two meetings, one for NMA and affiliates and one for JOHESU. But we are taking the meetings concurrently so that we don’t run into troubled waters. We are starting next week,” Ngige said.

     

    Ngige disclosed the NMA has been directed to submit a written position on the controversial withdrawing of doctors under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and house officers from the scheme of service to point out the anomaly in the circular.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

  • Victims of bandits attack, others abandoned at FMC Gusau as doctors’ strike enters day four.

    Victims of bandits attack, others abandoned at FMC Gusau as doctors’ strike enters day four.

    As the Nationwide strike embarked by the National Association of Resident Doctors enters day four, Medical services in Zamfara state have been paralyzed. The doctors’ body in the state said the strike has negatively affected clinical services as patients, including victims of bandit attacks, have been left unattended to

    The president of the chapter in federal medical Centre Gusau, Dr. Hussaini Haruna said there is no going back on the strike until their demands are met.

    The federal Medical Centre Gusau, which used to be a beehive of activities, is now nearly empty due to the ongoing nationwide strike embarked upon by the National Association of Resident Doctors.

    The doctors again decided to down tools due to the failure of the federal government to implement the agreement reached last April over their welfare. Their demands include increment in the hazard allowance, medical residency training funds, salary shortfall and the non payment of salaries to some members.

    Dr. Hussaini appeals to the federal government to act fast as patients including victims of Bandit attacks, are in dire need of medical attention. He added that many qualified doctors are leaving the country due to lack of improved welfare.

    On their part, authorities of the Hospital said measures are in place to continue skeletal services especially for emergency cases.

    The Chairman Medical Advisory Council Dr. Sunday Onazi said, only emergency cases are being attended to. Onazi adds that Consultants and NYSC Corp members are doing their best to attend to patients, while those with serious cases are referred to private Hospitals.

    He appealed to the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, settle the issue to enable Doctors resume work as patients are going through hard times.

    This is the second time in seven months that the National Association of Resident Doctors are going on strike over the same demand.

    They are worried that the strike is coming when president Muhammadu Buhari is again outside the country for medical check up and other official engagements just as it happened last April.

  • Setback on Medical Practice

     

    The National Association of Resident Doctors says the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a devastating blow on the nation’s medical practice, especially with the death of 19 members.

     

    NARD President, Dr Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, said this on Thursday during the association’s first National Executive Council post-COVID-19 meeting in Umuahia.

     

    Uyilawa expressed regret that the pandemic “dealt heavily on resident doctors,” who lost at least 19 colleagues to the deadly scourge.

     

    He said the plight being suffered by resident doctors in the country informed the choice of the theme of the meeting: “The Nigerian Doctor: An Endangered specie Grappling with a Pandemic, Poor Workplace, Infrastructure and Security Threat.”

    He added that aside from the number of deaths recorded, about 1,000 members were suffering from varying morbidities from the pandemic.

     

    He noted that the meeting would provide platform where the plight of resident doctors would be discussed with regards to poor workplace infrastructure and security threats associated with the job.

     

    The NARD president said, “This NEC meeting gives us another opportunity to critically and extensively deliberate on issues surrounding the quality of healthcare delivery in Nigeria.

     

     

    “We shall also X-ray our plight and shortcomings as it pertains to our welfare.

     

    “We shall review the ultimatum given to the federal and state governments on issues of welfare of our members, training and service delivery to our dear patients.

     

    “The hope of Nigerians for specialist healthcare is on the resident doctor and we have shown this by how we stood up to the novel pandemic and put our lives out for Nigerians.

     

    “We are, however, relieved that our service to humanity has not fallen short o f our mantra and calling.”

     

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.punchng.com

  • No work No pay: Doctors Vow to Continue Strike

    The National Association of Resident Doctors, on Friday, insisted that it would continue the ongoing nationwide strike until the Federal Government implements the terms of their agreement, including the payment of salary arrears and indemnity for their colleagues who died from COVID-19.

     

    The resident doctors’ strike entered its second day on Friday.

     

    The ARD President, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Dr Ifeanyin Ofuani, said patients were not being attended to because the strike was total.

     

    Ofuani told the News Agency of Nigeria that, while no resident doctor would attend to any patient, whether emergency or otherwise, consultants were however on the ground to attend to emergency patients.

     

    When reminded of a claim by the Federal Government that it had reached an agreement with the association, Ofuani refuted the claim, saying, “We have not reached any agreement with the Federal Government.

     

    “They gave us another memorandum of understanding or action, whatever they call it, to sign and we are tired of that. We have been signing that since 2014 and up till today, they have not honoured any of the memoranda. We want action; we don’t want memoranda anymore.”

     

    In Jalingo, Taraba State, the Federal Medical Centre and the State Specialist Hospital offered skeletal services. One of our correspondents observed that only emergency cases were being attended to at the State Specialist Hospital.

     

    The ARD President in the hospital, Dr Gabriel Ahmed, told Saturday PUNCH, “We are complying with the strike and until we have a contrary directive from the national (leadership), we can’t do otherwise.”

     

    At the FMC Jalingo, the ARD President, Dr Divine Njadze, told one of our correspondents in a telephone interview that doctors were complying with the strike, saying, “Only those on Consolidated Medical Salary Structure 6 and above, as well as medical consultants and chief medical officers, are offering skeletal services at the hospital.

     

    “For us on CONMESS 5 and below, we are complying with the strike and until we hear from the national body, the strike will persist.”

     

    Resident doctors in Katsina State also joined their colleagues in the nationwide strike, as one of our correspondents observed at the FMC and General hospital, Katsina.

     

    The ARD President, Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, Dr Daniel Apollos, described the situation as unfortunate and urged the Federal Government to do the right thing.

     

    The ARD Chairman, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile Ife branch, Dr Simeon Kusoro, told Saturday PUNCH that total compliance was recorded in the hospital, adding that the hospital was “almost empty.”

     

    The ARD President in Cross River, Dr Godwin Udoh, told Saturday PUNCH the strike was “total and indefinite.” Consultants, however, continued to attend to patients at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital.

     

    The resident doctors at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State also complied fully with the directive, saying consultant physicians were still at work attending to critical cases.

     

    The Public Relations Officer, UCH, Mr Toye Akinrinlola, said, “All our emergency areas – accident and emergency, intensive care unit, children emergency and antenatal – are all working.

     

    “The consultants, nurses, medical laboratory experts, pharmacists and other categories of medical personnel are at their duty posts. The management has been proactive.”

     

    The Nasarawa State chapter of the association also joined the nationwide strike declared by its national body, according to its President, Dr Moses Joshua.

     

    In Kaduna, activities at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria; Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, National Eye Centre, National Ear Care Centre were paralysed as a result of the strike.

     

    According to the President of NARD at the National Ear Care Centre, Dr Magaji Auwal, “the hospital is on an indefinite strike as directed by the association.”

     

    But resident doctors on the state government’s payroll were not affected as they were seen carrying out their normal activities unhindered.

     

    The ARD Chairman, Kaduna State, Dr Umar Ikara, told one of our correspondents that its members declined to join the strike, saying their challenges were different from those of the national level of NARD.

     

    Ikara said, “We held (a) meeting with our congress members and they were sceptical about joining the national strike, so we have reported the decision of our congress to the national body. Our members are not on strike.”

     

    The University of Uyo Teaching hospital, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State is running emergency services only following the nationwide strike by resident doctors in Nigeria

     

    Patients scramble for private hospitals

    The son of a patient at the Accident and Emergency Unit in UBTH, Mr Charles Benjamin, lamented the hardship on his father occasioned by the strike.

     

    Benjamin, who stated that his father was billed to undergo two surgical operations on Friday, said the senior citizen was in “severe pain.”

     

    A member of staff of the hospital, who preferred anonymity, said many patients had been discharged since Wednesday before the strike commenced, adding that only patients with serious conditions were being attended to by consultants in the hospital.

     

    Many relatives of patients at the hospital were seen in groups lamenting the situation brought by the strike.

     

    The father of a patient in the paediatrics unit of FMC Jalingo, Mr Musa Garba, told one of our correspondents that he had to move his daughter out of the hospital because only nurses were attending to patients.

     

    Another patient, Mrs Eunice Ande, said she was considering leaving the hospital because mostly nurses were attending to her.

     

    Mrs Linda Tanko of Donga Local Government Area of Taraba told Saturday PUNCH that she had to move her mother out of the State Specialist Hospital, Jalingo to a private hospital in the town because she could not get the attention of doctors.

     

    Miss Charity Pius also told one of our correspondents that her father had not been attended to at FMC Jalingo for several hours, adding that she was contemplating moving him to a private hospital.

     

    Checks at the Barau Dikko Specialists Hospital and Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital, Kaduna, showed that doctors were attending to patients. At the National Ear Care Centre, Kaduna, some doctors were carrying out skeletal services.

     

    Checks by Saturday Punch  showed that patients were being attended to in the clinics and emergency areas at the UCH, Oyo, though those who came for routine check-ups and some new cases were not welcomed.

     

    The emergency units in the hospital were still active as new patients were being admitted just as old patients were also being fully attended to.

     

    Blame Ngige for deaths, doctors tell Nigerians

     

    The resident doctors, however, asked Nigerians to hold the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, responsible for the loss of lives that might be recorded while the strike persists.

     

    NARD made its position known in a series of tweets via its verified handle @nard_nigeria, on Friday.

     

    “The minister @LabourMinNG should be held responsible for the lives that will be lost from the industrial dispute,” one of the tweets read.

     

    The resident doctors noted that Ngige, a medical doctor, quit medicine for politics, and asked why the minister did not go into clinical medicine and remain impoverished.

     

    The striking resident doctors also faulted the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for travelling to London for a routine medical check-up.

     

    Other tweets read, “Mr Labour Minister @LabourMinNG, it’s a shame the President @MBuhari is going to England for a second opinion on routine medical check-up and the Nigerian masses are dying.

     

    “Mr Labour Minister @LabourMinNG, what’s the clinical correlation between @Fmohnigeria and the ministry of environment as you said sanitation is part of the health budget?

     

    “For clarity, no professor of medicine earns his wardrobe allowance @LabourMinNG. @nard_nigeria has listened carefully to the labour minister @LabourMinNG… we aren’t perturbed.

     

    “We maintain our stand that nothing has been done. Health workers’ lives matter. We are tired of paperwork, implement your papers @LabourMinNG.”

     

    Recall that Ngige had told The PUNCH on Thursday that the resident doctors acted in bad faith by proceeding on strike after an agreement the Federal Government signed with the association’s leadership earlier in the day.

     

    The minister had threatened that if by the weekend the resident doctors remained adamant, their fate would be decided based on extant labour laws.

     

    Nigige had said the government was surprised that the resident doctors could still proceed on their strike after agreements were reached on all their demands.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.punchng.com