Doctors in Plateau State-owned hospitals under the aegis of National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners of Nigeria, NAGGMDPN, have issued a 14 day strike notice to the state government to arrest the harsh working conditions, leading to high brain drain among others or face an indefinite industrial unrest.
The doctors, Tuesday lamented acute shortage of manpower and working tools in all government-owned hospitals in the State, saying the situation had caused brain drain, leaving the number of medical doctors in the State-owned hospitals to less than 60.
State Chairman of the Association, Dr. Dubi Koplamma, and Secretary, Dr. Bapiga’an Audu, told journalists that they were disgusted over the alleged carefree attitude of the government despite what they termed, “humane disposition and understanding by our Association in the face of the challenges.”
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They faulted unexplainable deductions from their salaries and asked that “the State Government to refund our members all monies insensitively deducted from our salaries without any further delay.”
According to the text read by the Chairman, “We held an emergency Congress on Sunday, 20th February 2022, the Congress made the following observations: That the State Government made deductions from our members’ salaries without any communication to us. That despite having reached an agreement with the government in August 2020 on issues about the full implementation of Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS, manpower shortages, poor working conditions, medical residency training fund, and other sundry issues. The government has refused to reach out to us for discussion despite repeated overtures from the leadership of the association to initiate discussions…”
In a nine-point demand, he added, “The Congress unanimously rejects the current table being used by the government in paying us salaries, we demand that the government revert to the CONMESS table which is the appropriate template used for computing the emoluments accruable to medical doctors in Nigeria.
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“Government should pay the outstanding June 2020 COVID-19 Hazard and Inducement allowance still being owed us. Government should implement a rural posting allowance for all our members. Government should as a matter of urgency address issues that have to do with manpower shortages and other issues raised.
“We hereby give our employer 15 days’ notice to immediately begin implementation of the aforementioned items. We can no longer guarantee industrial harmony within the Hospitals Management Board beyond this period and shall be withdrawing our services if nothing is done to address these repeated, provocative and undeserving acts of injustice being meted out to our members.”
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