The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), has disputed the claims by Health workers under the auspices of Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) that they have been granted consultancy status by the Federal Government, saying only eight of JOHESU members in University College Hospital, Ibadan, were beneficiaries of the circular.

 

JOHESU recently claimed that it received a circular from the federal government granting consultancy status to its members.

 

MDCAN in a statement signed by its president Steve Oluwole, , the pressure mounted by JOHESU on the government for them to be appointed as consultants was ludicrous and putrefactive.

 

Oluwole in the statement, blamed government agencies for what he called “overly conciliatory and politicization of JOHESU demands which have thrown the Health Team into bottomless pit of anarchy.”

 

On October 21, 2014, the Federal Ministry of Health in circular titled: “Compliance with the judgement of the National Industrial Court (NICN) on the appointment of non medical officers as consultant/payment of specialists allowance”, with Reference number C.5516/I/T/152 and signed by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Linus Awute, directed all Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors to revert  appointments of all health workers  as consultants that were withdrawn.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 21 October, 2014, 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 judgement 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 reversal of the illegal appointments. The NIC Judgement, which followed a lawsuit, ordered re-instatement of the eight nurses.

 

 “The judgement 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, modeled after multitude of parallel and uncoordinated groups of health workers that are independently governed by disparate and competing regulatory Councils.

 “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.” 

By Victor Iluyemi