The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) deplored the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) over its hasty conclusion on the status of consultancy it claimed the federal government had accorded its members through a circular.

 

MDCAN, in a statement in Abuja, maintained that only eight of JOHESU members in University College Hospital, Ibadan, are the beneficiaries of the circular. MDCAN's President, Dr. Steve Oluwole, observed that JOHESU misconstrued the circular issued by the government as the status of consultancy did not extend to all JOHESU members within the rank under review.

 

The association also described the pressure mounted by JOHESU on the government for them to be appointed as consultants as 'ludicrous and putrefactive.'

 

Oluwole further blamed government agencies for what he called "overt conciliatory and politicisation of JOHESU demands," which he noted, "have thrown the health team into a bottomless pit of anarchy."

 

On October 21, the Federal Ministry of Health in a circular titled: "Compliance with the judgment of the National Industrial Court (NIC) on the appointment of non-medical officers as consultants/payment of specialists allowances," with Reference number C.5516/I/T/152 and signed by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Linus Awute, had directed all Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors to revert the appointments of all health workers as consultants that were withdrawn.

 

 

MDCAN said: "JOHESU's interpretation of circular C.5516/I/T/152 of the Federal Ministry of Health, dated October 21, is fictional. All members of JOHESU have not been granted the wishful consultant positions, but only the eight positions in UCH, Ibadan, are expected to subsist without application to any other institution in the country.

 

"Further, the public should note that the judgment of the NIC in question has been appealed."

 

Oluwole recalled that: "In 2010, the Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, appointed eight nurses as consultants contrary to the scheme of service of the Federal Ministry of Health. The Minister of Health ordered a reversal of the illegal appointments. The NIC Judgment, which followed a lawsuit, ordered re-instatement of the eight nurses.

 

"The judgment conceded, however, that only the Federal Ministry of Health can determine who becomes consultant."

 

While urging all Nigerians to resist what MDCAN called "dangerous aberration that JOHESU seeks," MDCAN, further said: "We cannot accede to a medical system of JOHESU's vision, modelled after multitude of parallel and uncoordinated groups of health workers that are independently governed by disparate and competing regulatory councils."

 

MDCAN president said: "The medical doctors trained to manage patients are to be disconnected from determining the course of management of their patients.

 

"JOHESU's drive and goal are, of course, not designed to improve health care delivery in Nigeria, but to enhance financial gain and achieve contrived status within the health team for their members. "JOHESU ignores the very obvious fact that no doctors becomes consultant based on years of practice or experience. In other words, medical consultancy is not achieved by promotion, but by appointment and more importantly by the need for such positions. Possession of the Fellowship of the Postgraduate College in Nigeria, or of anywhere in the world, does not make any medical doctor appointable as consultant."