Posted on: Tue 24-10-2023

Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has warned against what it tagged “running down of doctors” without following due process, saying that this is its chance to get it right in the health sector.

The association also called on the federal and state governments to increase budgetary allocation to the health sector to 15 per cent or more in order to revamp the sector.

It said: “If anyone has any case against a doctor practicing in Nigeria, he/she should channel such to the Registrar of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), which is the body statutorily saddled with such responsibility, for appropriate response.

NMA President, Dr. Uche Rowland Ojinmah, issued this warning, yesterday, while addressing a press briefing in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, to mark the commencement of its 2023 Physicians’ Week.

The theme for this year’s programme is ‘This is our chance to get it Right in the Health Sector,’ while the sub-themes are ‘The Abuja Declaration: 22 years after’ and ‘The Ethical Issues in Human Organ Donation.’

He noted that the country is passing through a difficult time in which citizens bear the brunt, saying that as an association, NMA is exploring all peaceful avenues towards securing some reprieve for its members.

Ojinmah urged the government to immediately commence the payment of the recently reviewed Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) with their arrears, including the accouterment allowance for medical doctors and dentists.

He stated that by making these payments, there wouldn’t be any need for NMA to engage in another round of agitation for the implementation of what has been circulated since July 2023.

Meanwhile, the Chief Medical Director, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Prof. John Akintunde Okeniyi, has lamented declining staff strength of the institution owing to brain drain in health sector, saying the few available staff members have been working under intense stress.

Okeniyi made this known, yesterday, while speaking at the presentation of Laboratory Accreditation Certificate to OAUTHC Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Laboratory, Virology Clinic by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) at the hospital’s main auditorium in Ile-Ife.

Notwithstanding the loss of staff to the Japa (runaway) syndrome, the CMD explained that the hospital has been coping because it is not located in a cosmopolitan city.

He said: “We are trying our best here in Ife; people are less distracted unlike those in more urban places like Lagos and Abuja. Despite the Japa syndrome, those who are here are still more committed. We make jokes that all they do is go to work, and maybe church and mosque.”

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