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Government should commence immediate recruitment of health workers across public health institutions nationwide
Health workers under the auspices of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) have expressed worry over the alarming brain drain in the Nigerian healthcare sector and urged the Federal Government and other stakeholders to address issues causing the mass exodus of the best brains in the sector.
The Union also lamented the gaps and the consequences, stating that it has led to the disturbing trend of acute human resource shortage which they said could cripple the entire health sector in the country. Also, NUAHP has demanded that the current gaps should be addressed through mass recruitment of health professionals across primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities in the country.
Their demand is contained in a message to mark the 2023 Workers Day, signed by the National President of NUAHP, Dr. Ogbonna Obinna. According to the statement, NUAHP is running out of patience with the lacklustre way the Federal Government is handling the technical report on the implementation of the adjusted Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS).
He said since 2014 when there was an adjustment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS, for medical practitioners, nothing positive had been done about it. Obinna said the action of the government was a flagrant violation of a collective agreement and consent judgment reached between the Federal Government and health sector Unions.
Presidential directive “The Union calls on the Federal Government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, to direct the Federal Ministry of Health to forward the technical committee report on adjustment of CONHESS for implementation as his parting gift to the health workers in Nigeria.
“The Union is dismayed by the delay in the implementation of the Pharmacist consultant cadre since the Circular was issued in 2020 by the Head of Service of the Federation. “The Union is particularly angered by the impunity exhibited by most of the Chief Executive Officers in the Federal Health Institutions (FHIs) who have refused to implement the Circular with the backing of the Federal Minister of Health.
“The Union demands its immediate implementation and calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to mandate the Minister of Health, Dr. Ohanire Osagie to ensure these Chief Executive Officers commence implementation of the Circular forthwith. “The Union frowned seriously at the delay in the consideration and passage of the Bill for an Act to amend the University Teaching Hospitals (Reconstitution of Boards, etc) Cap U15, Laws of the Federations of Nigeria, 2004 by the National Assembly.
The Union considered this delay as a calculated attempt by certain interests who are perpetually averse to sustainable industrial harmony in the health sector to frustrate the Bill and ensure it does not sail through the 9th National Assembly.
“The Union calls on the Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives to direct the two chambers Committees on Health Institutions to expedite action on its passage and pass it to the President for assent for industrial harmony and social justice in the health sector.
Health Sector Reform “The Union is still saddened by the non inclusion of health sector unions and other healthcare professional associations, especially the NUAHP in the Presidential Committee on Health Sector Reform Chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo.
“The Union demands immediate inclusion of these relevant stakeholders in the spirit of equity and inclusiveness. The global labour movement must respond to the challenges engendered by the economic neo-liberal reforms in many ways, most importantly through ideological/intellectual and practical engagement.
“While the latter reflects the labour movement response in its raw state, the former addressed the ideological contradictions inherent in the neoliberal reforms and proffered strategies to develop the intellectual base of union members in order to contend favourably with the neo-liberal challenge of the twenty-first century and future of work,” he stated.
He said there was a need to strengthen workers’ solidarity and unity to attain victory in the enormous struggle ahead. Workers’ solidarity He said: “Nigerian workers and the leadership of the labour movement must shun all divisive tendencies and close ranks to wage a collective struggle against all forms of exploitations, corruption, poverty, slave wage, neo-liberalism, unfair labour practices, and political manipulation by the ruling elites, etc.
“Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains” was the clarion call to the global labour movement by Karl Marx and Engels at the end of the Communist Manifesto in 1886. This they said is necessary to overcome the dominance of capital and the bourgeois exploitation of the working class.
For workers to achieve a fair wage and decent work there must be unity of purpose.” Obinna said NUAHP are calling on the Government at national and sub-national levels in Nigeria to urgently address matters affecting the welfare, morale and well-being of health workers by adjusting the Consolidated Health Salary Structure, CONHESS, which has been overdue since 2014.
Withheld salaries He further stated that there was a need to address among others; payment of withheld salaries of our members in Jos Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Owerri, and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos, implementation of all collective agreements reached with health workers in 2017, total overhauling of public health infrastructures with state-of-the-art-facilities nationwide, implementation of pharmacists consultant cadre, upward review of retirement age for health workers from 60-65 years and that of Consultant Health Professionals to 70 years, proper implementation of all outstanding court judgments of theNational Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) since March 2019.
He said the Federal Government should stop the discriminatory and obnoxious policy that makes only medical practitioners to be appointed as Chief Executives and head strategic departments and units in public health institutions nationwide.
“The 9th Assembly should expedite action on the passage of the Bill to amend the University Teaching Hospitals (Reconstitution of Boards, etc) Act Cap. U15, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria also known as Decree 10 of 1985. “FG should stop all concessions and privatisation arrangements of the Federal Health Institutions.
“Government should commence immediate recruitment of health workers across public health institutions nationwide to address the gaps created by brain drain. Inclusion of Health Sector Unions in the Presidential Committee on Health Sector Reform.
“Finally, the government must take proactive measures to address all security issues ravaging every part of the country constituting threats to lives and property. There must be a concerted effort by all security agencies to holistically address insurgency, kidnapping, armed robbery and banditry, herders-farmers crisis, communal crisis, cattle rustling, ritual killings, cultism and other social vices that have constituted terror to good citizens of this country.”
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