By Henry Uche
The power tussle between physicians and Pharmacists Society of Nigeria (and other medical professionals) is yet unsettled, as the society has again lamented what it described as the tyrannous disposition against non-physicians in the medical profession.
In a statement signed by the president of PSN, Professor Cyril Usifoh, the group, while reiterating that physicians have refused to yield ground in their position over decades, disclosed that PSN would not tolerate it any longer.
However, he opined, the Bill to Amend the University Teaching Hospitals (Reconstitution of Boards, etc) Act, Cap U15, LFN 2004, would fix major loopholes in the health sector, even though the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) rejected the proposed amendment.
PSN after a critical review of issues, posited that the dominance of physicians as CEOs of health institutions, university teaching hospitals (UTH), Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and federal health institutions (FHIs), can be best described as years of the holocaust, which had based their reign on Decree 10 of 1985, invented by the late Dr. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, to legalise discrimination, unfair practices and slavery of non-physician health workers by “almighty physicians” in Nigeria since 1985.
“The legacies of the headship of physicians in hospitals in Nigeria include discriminatory salaries and benefit packages for health workers; distortion and stifling of the career prospects of all non-physician health workers in Nigeria; and prohibition of skill acquisition, training programmes and consultant cadre for non-physician cadre.
“Others are decapitation of DRF and related schemes and lopsided representation in the board of managements and TMC of the FHIs. The whole scheme was skewed to perpetuate injustice against non-physician health workers in our country.
“From 1985 to 2014 (29 years), no non-physician health worker domiciled in the FHIs was able to get to the peak of their careers as directors on the equivalent of GL-17 because the leadership of the FHIs deliberately misapplied Decree 10 of 1985, which was the operating instrument in the sector, contrary to public service rules (PSR), which provides that any university graduate can get to the apogee of his career on GL-17.
“The CMDs hinged the decision to stagnate the careers of pharmacists and others who in some instances spent 15 years on one grade level on the premise that decree 10 provided for only two directors, which were in the clinical services and administration directorates. This apparently destroyed the careers of many health workers, until it was redressed in 2014 after a torturous JOHESU-led health workers’ strike.”
The PSN president maintained that physicians who led the FHIs have largely explored what he called “wicked and selfish clauses of Decree 10 of 1985” to decimate all other professions in healthcare.
The don also stated that physicians were sponsored by government to embark on residency training, but stumbling blocks were placed on the path of other health professionals, noting that FMoH issued a residency training circular for pharmacists in 2015, but the CMDs in almost all the 56 FHIs denied pharmacists access to wards and other facilities, which belong to government.
“In some instances, resident pharmacists in training pay upwards of N50,000 to access the facilities in hospitals where they work. In one of the South-South states where a seemingly liberal CMD allowed residency training for pharmacists, he was intimidated and given timelines to withdraw such recognition.
“Despite the hardships imposed on the career paths of pharmacists who pay over N3.5 million to run their fellowship programmes at the WAPCP, the physician CMDs and their bosses at the FMoH have now perfected an agenda to finally truncate the approvals of the National Council on Establishment, the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation and the immediate past permanent secretary of the FMoH for consultant cadre for pharmacists,” he said.
“The approval of this consultant status has not come with appropriate benefit package except for the UCH, Ibadan which has implemented it to the letter. It is a shame on Nigeria that Ghana and Sierra Leone has extended this privilege to its Consultant Pharmacists for over a decade.
“The usurpation of the privilege of skill acquisition is not limited to Pharmacy as Medical Laboratory Scientists who are autonomous professionals have been denied rights to become Heads of their Laboratories.
“Physicians (Pathologists) have insisted it is their right to head laboratories just like other Physicians (Ophthalmologists) want to continue to dominate Optometrists) and Radiologists suppress Radiographers with the backing of CMDs in FHIs.”
“The commonality of our brotherhood remains jeopardised beyond repairs every-time we evaluate our current realities because of the unfortunate posturing of Physicians.
“In 2009 when the current salary structure of Physicians on CONMESS and non-physicians on CONHESS was structured, it was agreed that any adjustment on one scale would be reflected on the other one.
“For eight and a half years, health workers under the aegis of JOHESU/AHPA have met a brick wall in their quest for the amendment of CONHESS because the leadership of the FMOH and FHIs has collaborated effectively to truncate their agitation for an amendment of CONHESS,” he decried.
Usifoh recalled that prior to the advent of decree 10 of 1985; pharmacists and physicians entered the civil service on GL-8 for internship/houseman-ship while proceeding to GL-9 after youth service. “This was the status-quo for over three decades preceding the birth of late Kuti’s coup with the devastating decree 10 of 1985.”