Kogi NMA raises alarm over unpaid salaries, exodus in govt facilities

THE Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Kogi State chapter on Friday again raised the alarm over months of unpaid salaries of doctors in the service of the state government.

The association said the development had led to an exodus of doctors from state-owned medical facilities, saying no fewer than 79 medical doctors have resigned from the State because of welfare problems.

The State Chairman of NMA, Dr Kabiru Zubair, said this at a world news conference in Lokoja, to mark the 2018 NMA’s Physicians’ Week, themed: “Universal Health Coverage: Leaving No One Behind.”

He regretted that the welfare of members of the association in the last one year had worsened due to poor remuneration, poor working conditions, lack of healthcare infrastructure, loss of purchasing power of the naira.

“The situation of doctors is very pathetic in Kogi Civil Service, starting from underpayment, irregular payment to outright non-payment of salaries for over five months consecutively and counting.

“Yet, our doctors and other healthcare workers kept on providing health care services on empty stomach at great risk to our families and professional calling. Currently, there is apathy and despondency in the health workforce in the State.

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“As at today, a total of 79 doctors have left Kogi Civil Service. In the last nine months alone, 27 doctors have resigned from the Kogi State Specialist Hospital (KSSH), Lokoja, including two consultants.

“44 have resigned from the State Hospitals Management Board (HMB) and eight from the Kogi State University Teaching Hospital, Anyigba. More doctors are just waiting for the next available opportunity to leave. The consequences are worsening healthcare indices in the State.

“The vacuum created will ultimately be filled by medical quacks to the detriment of our people and no level of policing can stop it.”

He said that the Kogi NMA had threatened and embarked on several industrial actions in the last one year just to mitigate against the development, saying the association was not ready to plunge the state health sector into another round of industrial action.

“NMA is not happy that government has not reciprocated the gesture by ensuring regular payment of doctors and other health care workers’ salaries in the State.

“We call on the state government to prioritise the salary payment of healthcare workers to abate the current low morale and untold hardship in the health workforce,’’ Zubair said.

He warned that Kogi NMA would not hesitate to ask her members and their stakeholders in the 2019 general election to campaign against any government or individuals that refuse to genuinely prioritise healthcare delivery.