The nation’s health sector is not passing through the best of times, as consultants under the umbrella of Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), have resolved to withdraw their services on Monday August 16, over unpaid entitlements, welfare packages and conditions of service.

Already, public hospitals in the country are operating at a very minimal level, following the ongoing strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), as majority of persons seeking healthcare have been forced to seek alternative means of health services. President of MDCAN, Prof. Ken Ozoilo, said the strike had become necessary, as all efforts to engage various arms and agencies of government in the past 10 years, in order to address their demands have failed.

While noting that the strike would have a devastating effect on medical education and clinical services across the country, MDCAN lamented that its members were unhappy with the unfair labour treatment they were receiving from their employers. In a communique issued earlier three weeks ago, the National Executive Council of MDCAN, had observed that its members have suffered massive income loss in the past 10 years, which was reason why they had to do two full time jobs in both the Universities and the teaching hospitals.

They explained that the income loss extends into retirement as their retirement benefits are much reduced due to the income loss incurred in the University, in addition to that fact that their work in the teaching hospital is undercompensated, and also the fact that the remuneration system in the University does not recognize them as doctors, despite the fact that the University primarily employs them because of the fact that they are doctors. They also observed that the 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. Also, the Association in a communique issued at the end of its emergency NEC meeting demanded, thus immediate withdrawal of the NSIWC letter Ref no: SWC/S/04/S.410/T/86, of April 23, 2021, that ordered the removal of doctors from CONMESS on the IPPIS platform in the University.

(Text, excluding headline courtesy Saturday Telegraph)

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