By UBONG UKPONG, Abuja

The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), on Tuesday, told the House of Representatives Joint Committees on Health Institutions and Health Services, to address the ongoing imbalances in the sector between its members and medical doctors or forget about the desired peace and prosperity in the sector.

JOHESU, which is the umbrella body for all professional bodies in the health sector except the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), and National Association of Resident Doctors (NARDs), told the Committee that they were tired of the decades of oppressions they have being suffering in the hands of doctors.

The Union was invited by the committee, to address the issues of poor quality health services as well as industrial disharmonies visible in the sector throughout the country.

Hon. Pascal Chigozie Obi, Chairman, House Committee on Health Institutions, had asked JOHESU to open up and freely discuss, as the House was ready to address all the issues that would aid the return of sanity to the sector.

He told the Union that the committee had earlier met with the minister of Health, Heads of Teaching Hospitals and Specialist Hospitals amongst others on these issues.

The Chairman told them that it was the rights of Nigerians to enjoy quality health services and that the committee was desirous of bequeathing a good health sector to Nigerians at the end of the 9th Assembly in 2023.

Consequently, Joy Josiah, National President of JOHESU, who told the committee that these were attainable, stressed that the government must take the bull by the horn to address the oppression and harassment that they were suffering in the hands of doctors.

Josiah told the Committee that it was quite sad, that medical doctors with the support of government were doing everything possible to make other professionals slaves in the same institutions where they both work, after putting in so much graduate from the same Universities.

He disclosed that doctors had often tried to sell the idea that other professionals were fighting to earn the same pay with them, but on the contrary, they were looking for justice and equity in the system.

The JOHESU President said that for instance, a doctor who spent eight years in the University and obtained first Degree, upon employment, was placed on Grade Level 12, while a Nurse, who spent seven years, with the difference of one year, was placed on Grade Level 8.

Josiah wondered that upon this, the doctors were still fighting to ensure that even a newly employed doctor earns quite higher than a Nurse, who has put in a good number of years, as well as becoming superior to the Nurse.

He said that while this was just one case, other medical professionals like Pharmacists, Laboratory Scientists, Radiographers amongst others, also suffered worse things in the hands of the medical doctors, who have assumed the position of a boss over them.

Josiah told the committee that the era of installing medical doctors as ministers and misters of state for Health, Chief Medical Directors, Heads of departments of other professionals must end, if there would be peace.

He preferred that government must resort to hiring professional administrators to administer the institutions and coerce all the medical professionals together to face their professional duties, as practiced in other climes.

He assured that only until then, there would never be peace, because there was no profession greater than the other, as each must complement the other for effectiveness, efficiency. (Daily Independent)

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