Posted on: Thu 23-12-2021

The Joint Health Sector Unions and the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations have urged the Federal Government to stop inviting doctors to negotiate on their behalf.

The unions, in a statement on Wednesday, told the Federal Government that only non-physicians would be accepted by them in future negotiations.

The JOHESU and AHPA had in a letter dated December 16, 2021, written to the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, to draw his attention to their demand.

The letter, signed by the acting National Secretary of JOHESU, Matthew Ajurotu, was titled, ‘Complaint on Procedural Defects in the Negotiating Team of the Federal Ministry of Health at JOHESU-FG Parleys’.

It stated in part, “Recent events have compelled the Joint Health Sector Unions and the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations to formally draw the attention of the minister to the unending cycle of misnomer, where the Federal Ministry of Health dispatches a team completely dominated by physicians to negotiations involving the welfare and accruing benefit packages of members of JOHESU/AHPA.

“The climax of these numerous aberrations usually manifests at times of trade disputes when the Minister of Health would lead teams made up of high numbers of physicians to the negotiating table on matters relating/pertaining exclusively to members of JOHESU/AHPA.

“In the event that the Federal Government and its proxies will need professional inputs in the course of negotiations with JOHESU/AHPA, we demand that moving forward, only a team comprising the requisite and appropriate health professionals, who must be non-physicians, will be acceptable to us in future negotiations.”

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