You all knew that i was going to talk, right? Over the couple of days, i have been engaging some doctors in a facebook debate trying to understand their demands and why they think they deserve it. I realized most of them don't understand why they are on strike and most of them don't have facts to support their claims or demands. In the process i have been insulted, my profession has been insulted and i have gotten angry. But lately i began to realize that this strike was for the best because it opened the eyes of the public to the antics of the NMA/ARD/MDCAN. Nobody had to do anything, they did themselves.
Anyway i had heard about some of the demands they were making but i was yet to get the full list so i asked a doctor friend and this was what he posted (in simple words). Please continue reading...
Why are doctors on strike? Plenty reasons...but I'll tell you a few of them.
1. Federal government has been given more than 60 days to address these issues but has not responded.
2. Federal government has just given the benefits, rights and privileges of doctors (attained by virtues of training and retraining) to other health professionals in the name of JOHESU. (Which include ancillary staffs, admin staffs)
3.On the issue on consultancy status for other health workers - they said they are advancing in their career and expanding their vision..but wait...even if federal govt grants their request, Doctors would not watch and see patients get into wrong hands. If you want to consult and prescribe for patients in this country esp in the hospital, then go to medical school...that's where you get the training. How can a lizard be fed with stuffs so much that it becomes as big as a crocodile...that will be malignancy.
4. About non-doctors being CMDs....this is funny and out of this world..it's chief MEDICAL officer, not chief ADMIN officer, not chief NURSING officer. We have DA (Admin), CNO (nursing), please CMD can only be doctors...they are the most senior medically qualified professional in the hospital.
For people who say honorary consultants are not full time employees of the hospital...well, why is this just being noticed. That's the law, Drs don't want that to change, as it's the best for a TEACHING Hospital to be led by an academic and a doctor.
5. Deputy cmac: Cmac office is very stressful (with evidence) for the holder and he had asked for a deputy...why is JOHESU standing against the office. I think I don't understand, don't they want the office to be run effectively? At least there are at least 3DVCs in the university, I'm sure it was not like that from day 1...please, let this position be.
6. Relativity - ask over the world, the salary of the doctor is at a particular ratio to the other health workers. Right now, it has been eroded for several years. Every time JOHESU goes on strike, they ask for more and the more destabilized relativity..It is only fair for relativity to be restored to the health sector. Presently, I can tell you that the salary of a other professionals in the health sector is at par with that of doctors if you calculate how much is earned per unit time spent in the hospital. Please govt, give us our dues.
7. On NHIS, the health system of developed countries is based fairly on the efficacy of health insurance for majority of the populace. Isn't it fair to tell the govt to extend the coverage? This will reduce maternal mortality, infant mortality, increase the economic potential of the country by making more healthy people available for productive work.
8. Presently, I am paid at a grade level and step lower than my rank in the civil service...for real this is not a lie. We are calling on the government to pay our arrears and pay us accordingly.
9. That government should honor the agreement made with doctors to streamline residency training and fund it as it is done in other countries.
For those who feel govt is paying doctors to train them...please be aware that we work for the money, and we are underpaid, and we write professional exams to progress. Let me inform you, the teaching hospital cannot run without resident doctors...the consultants can't do all the work alone.
These are a few of the demands of doctors (in simple words), government was given plenty time to address them...but they would not. If they finally respond, Nigeria health system will be better for it.
Well i eventually found the 24 point agenda and i am publishing them for your reading pleasure:
(1) APPOINTMENT OF THE POST OF THE DEPUTY CMAC IN HOSPITALS.
(2) NMA IS OPPOSED TO THE APPOINTMENT OF OTHER DIRECTORS IN HOSPITALS.
(3) NMA DEMANDS THAT GRADE LEVEL 12 SHOULD BE SKIPPED BY DOCTORS.
(4 ) APPOINTMENT OF OTHER MEDICAL PERSONNEL AS CONSULTANTS
(5) RELATIVITY IN HEALTH SECTOR
(6) NATIONAL HEALTH BILL.
(7) THE APPOINTMENT OF SURGEON GENERAL.
(8) THE ENTRY POINT OF HOUSE OFFICER TO BE ON CONMESS 1 STEP 4
(9) CLINICAL ALLOWANCES FOR HONORARY CONSULTANTS TO BE INCREASED BY 90% OF CONMESS.
(10) NMA, with the huge sum they are paid, still wants adjustment in
their specialist allowance to be paid to all doctors on CONMESS 3 and
above, and must be paid its equivalent that is not less than 50% higher
than what is paid to other Health Workers.
(11) NMA is calling
for Government to pay her members 100,000 naira every month as just
hazard allowance.
12) NMA insists on immediate release of circulars on rural posting,
teaching and other allowance which must include House Officers.
(13) NMA calls for immediate withdrawal of CBN circular
authorizing the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigerian (MLSCN)
to approve licenses for the importation of in vitro diagnostics (IVDS).
(14) NMA wants immediate release of circular on retirement age.
(15) NMA wants Overseas
Training for its residency program.
(16) NMA insist on payment of
salaries of her member in Owerri. Her members should also meet part of
their own responsibilities and agreement as workers. NMA must learn to
obey constituent authority, and must make her members to be amenable to
discipline.
(17) NMA members wants to be placed back on IPPIS
platform.
(18) NMA wants their House Officers to be
part of NARD-National Association of Resident Doctors.
(19)
NMA accuses Medical Laboratory Scientists of harassment.
(20) NMA says-‘the
endless circles of incomplete salary payment to our members in many
hospital in the name of short falls in personal cost must stop’.
(21) NMA in her number 21 demand states ‘universal application of all
establishment circulars on remuneration and condition of service for
doctors at all levels of Government must be guaranteed’.
(22) NMA demands that Government must urgently set up a health trust
fund that will enhance the upgrading of hospitals.
(23) APPOINTMENT INTO THE OFFICE OF THE CMD/MD.
(24) NMA wants to dictate on how Optometrist or
Medical Physicist should be paid.
Source: www.medicalworldnigeria.com
While reading this i was looking for where there was a point dedicated to improved medical services for the patients or improved health care facilities. All i saw was 'I, I, I and more I' and what disappointed me was none of my doctor friends could defend their points. All i heard was 'there cannot be two captains in a ship, a cabin crew member cannot be a pilot, i cannot sell my birthright, i cannot earn earn the same salary as a common pharmacist, a professor of surgery in ibadan told a nurse to clean a wound of a patient and she said no, the patient would be confused if a pharmacist is called a consultant pharmacist or any other person is called a consultant in his or her field and the classic line....the patient belongs to the doctor'.
Well i am going to publish the full article written on www.medicalworldnigeria.com on the rationale of the 24 points demand of the NMA. Please be sure to check it out....
Thanks for stopping by.
Luv,
Petite Diva
These people are just outright mad
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for Nigeria
I had my fair share of those annoying conversations with some egoistic doctors on my FB, I had to pen down an article myself http://www.medicalworldnigeria.com/2014/07/dear-nigerian-doctor-by-janyl-benyl/#.U-dCfX-9KK1
They are so selfish. Gosh the ill