The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) has called for disciplinary action against Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors of Federal Health Institutions (FHIs) for sabotaging government directive on resident pharmacy training.

Acting National Secretary of JOHESU, Comrade Matthew Ajorutu, in a letter to Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), alleged that the Chief Executive Officers of FHIs, with the backing of the Federal Ministry of Health (FmoH), sabotaged the residency training by refusing to implement approved resident training for pharmacists as contained in the government circular.

He condemned what he described as ‘undisguised oppression against health workers by disrupting their (pharmacists’) post-graduate specialty and skills acquisition endeavours.’ The development, he said, was contrary to the 2015 circular by the FMoH under the leadership of the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Linus Awute, which approved the use of all FHIs in the country as training facilities for resident pharmacists in-training at the WAPCP.

According to him, 11 years after the National Council on Establishment (NCE) endorsed a consultant pharmacist cadre, FmoH, in alliance with the Committee of CMDs and MDs of the FHIs had ignored the circular which prescribed that graduates of the WAPCP in the Directorate Cadre from CONHESS 13 to 15 be recognised as Consultant Pharmacists in the Public Service.

“It is necessary to put on record that eleven years after the National Council on Establishment (NCE) endorsed a Consultant Pharmacist Cadre, first approved in 2011 with all necessary ingredients of due process of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF) and enabling circular for smooth implementation issued the FMoH yet again, in alliance with the Committee of CMDs and MDs of the FHIs have sabotaged the circular which prescribes that graduates of the WAPCP in the Directorate Cadre from CONHESS 13 to 15 be recognised as Consultant Pharmacists in the Public Service.

“In what was perceived as very bizarre, the FMoH recently wrote a memo to the NCE asking for further clarifications on the implementation of the Consultant Cadre circular for Pharmacists. This memo was rejected and thrown out by the NCE which insisted that all necessary steps for implementation of the Consultant Cadre for Pharmacists were already spelt out in the August 2021 Circular of the FMoH.

“It is noteworthy that the Permanent Secretary, FMoH in a letter Ref. no. FMH/FDS/CSPTH/1/77 OF March 18, 2021, issued an internal circular to all Heads of Departments, FHIs, Agencies/Parastatals and regulatory bodies directing immediate implementation of the approved scheme, a circular that has continually been flouted by the CMDs and MDs of the FHIs,” he said.

Ajorutu expressed regret that despite the flawless process that engendered the approval of the consultant pharmacists cadre, it had remain a sad testimony that only the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, and about two other FHIs as well as the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria that have complied with the circular of the HOCSF and the FMoH to implement the new consultant pharmacists cadre.

He frowned at government apathy and refusal to impose sanctions on the reckless attitude of the CMDs, saying it amounts to promoting indiscipline in the service as well as a clear usurpation of the collective authorisation, rights and privileges of pharmacists and the generality of all health workers in Nigeria.

“The Public Service Rules provides the operational framework, the regulatory principles and a charter of rights, privileges and duties of all public servants while also detailing what sanctions erring conduct could attract. The action of the CMDs and MDs not to comply with circulars from the office of the HOCSF and FMoH even in the light of recent development at the National Council of Establishment amounts to a ‘refusal to obey legitimate management instruction’ which is an act of gross misconduct in absolute and real terms,” he said.

He called upon the HOCSF to uphold the mode of implementation already clearly and unambiguously documented in the circular Ref. No. FMH/FDS/CSPTH/1/95 of August 2, 2021 as it clarified the mode of applicability and full implementation of the Consultant Pharmacists Cadre in Nigeria.

‘’The HOCSF is enjoined to invoke PSR 030301 against all the CMDs and MDs in FHIs immediately so as not to continue to set this ungodly precedence of indiscipline and recklessness in service protocol,” he said.

Ajorutu observed that that the incentive for the various aberrations at the FHIs was catalysed by the apparent inaction/action of the federal government to deal decisively with obvious aberrations perpetrated by the CMDs and MDs of the concerned FHIs, and urged the HOCSF to take note of PSR 030301 which defines misconduct as a “specific act of wrong-doing or an improper behaviour which is inimical to the image of the service and can be investigated and proved.” (THISDAY)

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