Medical guild demands payment of reviewed CONMESS allowance

An umbrella body of all Medical and Dental practitioners employed by the Lagos State government, the Medical Guild, has demanded for the payment of the reviewed CONMESS allowance as implemented for our federal counterparts with its accrued arrears from July 2023.

Other demands of the Medical personnel include the employment of Medical Officers on grade level 12/2 and consultants at grade level 15/4 in line with national best practices, immediate restoration and payment of contributory pension/NHF deductions for our resident doctors as enshrined in the Pension Reform Act of 2014 and full implementation of the September ‘23 Medical Guild position paper, as discussed and assented to by the government of Lagos state.

Chairman of Medical Guild, Dr. Moruf Abdulsalam  called for urgent actions to be taken on the aforementioned before another avoidable breakdown in service delivery ensues.

 Abdulsalam, recalled that the Medical Guild had warned about the human resources crisis being experienced in facilities across the state where solutions to mitigate this ongoing haemorrhage of doctors out of the state were proffered.

Highlighting the challenges of medical personnel in the state, he said, “Recall that the medical Guild had declared an industrial dispute with the government over the following issues: Non payment of the reviewed CONMESS allowance already implemented for our federal colleagues and in the states of Ekiti, Delta, Ebonyi, Rivers, and Katsina. This has worsened the salary parity between doctors in Lagos state and aggravated the already dire emigration of doctors to the federal employment and out of the country.

Another is the demotion of specialist consultants as a result of incorrect step entry points into the public service. This has led to loss of income, low morale, and lack of interest from prospective specialists in joining the state health service and non deduction of contributory pension and NHF deductions for resident doctors in Lagos state.

The globally recognized JAPA syndrome remains an inadequately recognized crisis, and the apparent lukewarm approach of the state government towards the above highlighted issues only serves to tilt the Lagos doctors’ endurance to the breakpoint.

An average of two to three doctors resign from our primary and secondary facilities every month without commensurate replacement. This has led to overwork, chronic fatigue, burnout, and strained family relationships for the remaining doctors with many grappling with chronic medical conditions from the stress and overwork.”

Abdulsalam also lamented the impacts of the current economic hardship on doctors in the state.

He added, “Moreover, the current economic starvation and stagflation in the country are biting harder on doctors too! This has been further worsened by the non-payment of the reviewed CONMESS allowance and other issues of poor conditions of service.

These factors are currently heightening the tension and fuelling the haemorrhage of doctors from the state to private establishments and then outside of the country.

Nigeria and Lagos state in particular is plagued with human resource migration for greener pastures which has led to a frightening reduction in the number of doctors left in the state to manage the ever-growing population of a mega city like Lagos. This fact was corroborated recently by the remarks of the Honorable Commissioner for Health in Lagos State where he alluded to the reality that Lagos needs about 30,000 medical practitioners to fill this personnel gap.

To validate this, a recent online survey carried out by the Medical Guild where about 940 of our members who responded also confirmed that, 91.1% of our respondents reported that there is a manpower shortage in their department,  85.9%  reported burnout from being overworked and, 54.4% reported that their morale was low. Again about 59% reported an increase in the number of call duties being undertaken by them in the last 1 year. Shockingly too, 98.7% of our members reported that they have never been a beneficiary of the LASG Homs mortgage scheme nor car loan!

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Despite this shortage of medical personnel and the consequent reduction in the wage bill of government for personnel cost, the state government has continued to open up more facilities such as the recently commissioned Gbajabiamila Hospital, Surulere, Maternal and Child Centre, Imota to mention a few.

In the build up to the disputed issues with government, we would like to place on record that we have and continue to employ all manners of advocacy and constructive persuasion, to avert this looming crisis. The government is yet to bulge. In the coming days, we shall call on the Association’s Congress to determine the next line of action.

Once again, the hardworking and conscientious doctors are pleading with our dynamic and charismatic Mr. Governor to use his exalted office to avert an avoidable grand landscape crisis in the health sector and urgently implement the above proposed incentives for the Health sector family of Lagos state.”