Health professionals and workers in Enugu State under the auspices of Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) went wild with jubilation as Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi announced an upward increase of their Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) from 41 per cent to 60 per cent, effective from September 2021.
The ehalth workers were at Government House, Enugu, on a thank-you visit to Ugwuanyi for his benevolence and unflinching commitment to their welfare. Presenting their address, state Chairman of JOHESU, Ezekiel Omeh, lauded Governor Ugwuanyi for actualising the implementation of CONHESS for health professionals and workers in Enugu State.
“CONHESS is a dream that has eluded us for the past 11 years but made real by you (Ugwuanyi) in the month of May 2021. We thank you and salute your political wisdom to be used as a vessel to actualise God’s will. We appreciate your kind heart and show of love. We are happy that today, you have placed us at par with our peers and contemporaries in the health industry who have been enjoying the CONHESS which is the appropriate salary scale operational in the country since 2010. We are aware that in the previous times before your coming in as governor, the economy was good enough to implement CONHESS for us, but our agitations for it then resulted in giving us more pains than relief.
“To assuage the situation, you approved 10 per cent CONHESS in 2018 and in 2021, you approved additional 31 per cent making a total of 41 percent CONHESS. You also gave us COVID-19 allowance that lasted for upward of one year when other states, including Federal Government, had withdrawn the payment. We also appreciate your aggressive investment in the health sector in Enugu State.”