Doctors threaten nationwide strike - Give FG Jan 31 ultimatum

Isaac Shobayo, Jos - 24.01.2008

THE Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has given the Federal Government till the end of this month to address the demands of medical doctors on a separate salary scale.

The National President of the association, Dr. Daniel Gana, who handed down the ultimatum while speaking with newsmen in Jos, Plateau State, on Wednesday, said that this was to avoid any undue interruption in the health sector if the Federal Government failed to address the issue.

“We have given the Federal Government up to January 31 to start negotiations for a separate pay packet for medical doctors which we call Medical Services Super Scale and to start looking at the total health care system in the country and if anything was not done after then, we cannot guarantee uninterrupted service in the health sector,” he said.

He pointed out that medical doctors had rejected the CONTISS which was released last year, and `wondered why some affiliate associations in NMA were still going on strike over it.

Dr. Gana pointed out that NMA was not aware of a strike embarked upon by the Association of Resident Doctors of the Jos University Teaching Hospital over the CONTISS issue.

According to him, NMA had rejected the CONTISS because it did not put the salary of a medical doctor relative to other health workers, adding that the CONTISS, rather than enhancing the salary of medical doctors, indeed reduced it.

On the state of most teaching hospitals in the country, the NMA President said that only way to arrest the deterioration in health services in Nigeria was for the Federal Government to declare an emergency in the health sector.

He further stated the life expectancy of the average Nigerian had fallen from 56 years in 2002 to 42 because of the general fall in the standard of living compared to 75 and 70 years for females and males in Ghana respectively.

Gana added that the maternal mortality rate in Nigeria had also risen sharply to about 1,000 deaths per 100,000 births as a result of the total failure in the health sector.