From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Consultants in hospitals under the umbrella of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) have threatened to withdraw their services nationwide from August 16th, 2021, over unpaid entitlements, welfare packages and conditions of service.
MDCAN said the planned strike will be total, absolute and indefinite, and expectedly, will have a devastating effect on medical education and clinical services across the country.
It disclosed that all efforts at engaging various arms and agencies of government with the aim of achieving a negotiated peaceable solution in the past 10 years has failed, hence the decision to withdraw services effective August 16th.
The Association advised the Government and its agencies to seize the opportunity of the ultimatum to prevent another round of unnecessary disruption of medical education and clinical services across the country
MDCAN President, Prof. Ken Ozoilo, said the decision to down tools was taken in Jos, at the end of its emergency of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Association in which some members participated physically while others joined via the digital platforms.
He explained that the Medical and Dental Consultants are unhappy with unfair labour treatment being received from their employers, which they have taken steps to redress but failed.
He said the sole agenda for the emergency NEC meeting was to deliberate on the continued underpayment of members who are clinical lecturers in Universities across Nigeria, against the backdrop of the letter from the National Salaries, Incomes And Wages Commission (NSIWC) of 23rd April 2021, Ref no: SWC/S/04/S.410/T/86, to the Office of the Account General of the Federation (OAGF) directing the removal of doctors who are lecturers from the CONMESS salary scale on the IPPIS platform for the payment of their salaries in the Universities.
The NEC of the Association observed that its members have suffered massive income loss in the past 10 years, and it was the direct result of the fact that they do two full-time jobs in both the Universities and the teaching hospitals.
They explained that the income loss extends into retirement as their retirement benefits are much reduced due to the income loss incurred in the University, in addition to that fact that their work in the teaching hospital is under-compensated, and also the fact that the remuneration system in the University does not recognize them as doctors, despite the fact that the University primarily employs them because of the fact that they are doctors.
They also observed that the income loss has led to the increasing difficulty in attracting the brightest and the best of Consultants into the University as lecturers, a steady exodus of the few doctors in academia to service centres and a worsening of the brain drain phenomenon.
The Association in a communique issued at the end of its emergency NEC meeting demanded, thus immediate withdrawal of the NSIWC letter Ref no: SWC/S/04/S.410/T/86, of 23rd April 2021, that ordered the removal of doctors from CONMESS on the IPPIS platform in the University.
It demanded that a directive be issued to the effect that all Universities previously paying their clinical lecturers on the CONMESS scale before the aforesaid NSIWC letter should revert back to that practice immediately.
Similarly, it demanded immediate placement of all clinical lecturers in the remaining universities on CONMESS scale for the purpose of their remuneration in the University, alternatively, award compensation for the income loss incurred by doctors in the University on account of being lecturers, provided that it reflects in their pension contributions.
The Association also suggested that doctors migrating from teaching hospitals to the Universities upon completion of residency training should do so with their salaries personal to them. It rejected a practice whereby Senior Registrars lose income when they migrate from the teaching hospitals to become lecturers 1 in the University.
The Association asked for compensation for the clinical work done in the teaching hospitals by increasing the clinical duty allowance to 100 per cent of the consolidated basic salary of the CONMESS scale, and a halt to the proposed movement of consultants from IPPIS back to GIFMIS for the purposes of payment of their salaries.