There are strong indications that medical education and clinical services in teaching hospitals in Nigeria might be disrupted following the 21-days ultimatum issued by the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) to the federal government and its agencies beginning from Monday 26th July 2021 to withdraw a letter directing removal of doctors from CONMESS on the IPPIS platform in the university.
The National President of MDCAN Professor Ken Ozoilo who disclosed this to newsmen in Jos said the ultimatum was part of the resolutions of the association at its Emergency National Executives Council (NEC) meeting held through virtual and threatened that services of members shall be withdrawn in all the teaching hospitals including medical education across the country if the government refused to accent to the demand of the association.
Professor Ken Ozoilo said the NEC equally examined the continued underpayment of members who are clinical lecturers in Universities across Nigeria, against the backdrop of the letter from the National Salaries, Incomes And Wages Commission (NSIWC) of 23rd April 2021, Ref no: SWC/S/04/S.410/T/86 to the Office of the Account General of the Federation directing the removal of doctors who are lecturers from the CONMESS Salary Scale on the IPPIS platform for the payment of their salaries in the Universities.
According to him, the meeting further observed that the income loss being suffered by consultants who are clinical lecturers in the Universities has gone on for over 10 years adding that It was the direct result of the fact that they do two full-time jobs in both the Universities and the Teaching Hospitals, yet receive a combined emolument that was less than that of one job.
He added that the income loss extends into retirement as their retirement benefits were much attenuated too, due to the income loss incurred in the University.
“That this income loss is the result of the fact that their work in the Teaching Hospital is under-compensated, and also the fact that the remuneration system in the University does not recognise them as doctors, despite the fact that the University primarily employs them because of the fact that they are doctors.
“That this income loss has led to the increasing difficulty in attracting the brightest and the best of consultants into the University as lecturers, a steady exodus of the few doctors in academia to service centres and a worsening of the brain drain phenomenon,” he said.
Professor Ozoilo stated that all efforts at engaging various arms and agencies of government with the aim of achieving a negotiated peaceable solution in the past 10 years have proved an unmitigated failure.
He, therefore, pointed out that the NEC of the Association has therefore issued a 21-day ultimatum effective from today, Monday 26th July of 2021, to the government and its agencies as a notice of its resolve and demanded immediate withdrawal of the NSIWC letter Ref no: SWC/S/04/S.410/T/86 of 23rd April 2021 directing the removal of doctors from CONMESS on the IPPIS platform in the University.
The demand also includes: “Immediate placement of all clinical lecturers in the remaining universities on CONMESS Scale for the purpose of their remuneration in the University. Alternatively, award of compensation for the income loss incurred by doctors in the University on account of being lecturers, provided that this shall also reflect in their pension contributions.
“A directive that doctors migrating from the Teaching Hospitals to the Universities upon completion of residency training should do so with their salaries personal to them. The practice whereby Senior Registrars lose income when they migrate from the Teaching Hospitals to become Lecturers 1 in the University is no longer acceptable.”
He added that the association also demanded compensation for the clinical work done in the Teaching Hospital by increasing the clinical duty allowance to 100per cent of the consolidated basic salary of the CONMESS Scale and a halt to the proposed movement of consultants from IPPIS back to GIFMIS for the purposes of payment of their salaries.
“If our minimum demands are not met by Monday the 16th of August 2021, we shall have no alternative than to withdraw the services of our members from all institutions in which they are employed. The strike shall be total, absolute and indefinite.
“We hope the government and its relevant agencies will seize this opportunity to prevent another unnecessary round of disruption of medical education and clinical services across the country,” he said
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