Health / News

FG commends NARD, offers N47b as hazard allowance

The Federal Government has commended the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors for suspending its nationwide strike that had lasted for 63 days.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, gave the commendation on Wednesday in Abuja.

He spoke when he received the leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association, who led NARD’s executive members on a visit to his office.

Ngige, who commended the new NARD leadership, led by Dr. Godiya Ishaya, for asking its members to return to work, disclosed that the federal Government had increased the aggregate money in the 2022 budget for hazard allowance from N40 billion to N47 billion annually. He said the latest strike would not have degenerated to the point it got to if the former NARD leadership had given their members the correct information.

The minister said the Federal Government was not indebted to any doctor up till August 2 when NARD embarked on the strike.

He, however, noted that there were contentions about allowances such as Medical Residency Training Fund and some doctors who were not paid the Special COVID-19 allowances.

The Minister assured that all the contentious issues were being addressed, including the payment of Medical Residency Training Fund and Special COVID-19 allowances for those omitted.

Ngige said: “The previous NARD leadership hoarded information from your members.

“Instead, things wouldn’t have degenerated.

“There is no need being pugilistic.

“We know that we have opposition to our government.

“It doesn’t mean that if we are doing something right, we should not be praised.

“If the former NARD leadership were not playing politics, they should have reported well to their members, especially after the intervention of the Elders Forum, of which the President and Secretary General of NARD were members.

“You are lucky to have me, a medical doctor and health system manager, here as the Minister of Labour and Employment.

“So, when the matter came, the issues are clear to me.

“But when you bring advice to both parties on how things should be done and it is thrown away completely, …

Health / News / politics

We’ll recover millions wrongly paid to 588 Doctors — FG

The Federal Government will recover millions of naira wrongly paid to 588 Medical Doctors across the country.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, stated this when he spoke with newsmen in Abuja over the weekend.

Ngige, who fielded questions from State House Correspondents, explained that affected doctors wrongly benefitted from Medical Residency Training Fund meant for particular category of doctors.

He said the names of the doctors were uncovered after a thorough scrutinized of the 8,000 names submitted by Chief Medical Directors of Federal Government health institutions for the training programs. The Minister, however, revealed that a substantial amount of the money had been refunded by some of the affected doctors, while efforts had been intensified to recover the remaining balance.

He maintained that the delay in making the refund by the affected doctors was holding back the Residency Fund payment by the government.

Ngige said: “Ministry of Health has gotten the list of doctors who supposedly are to benefit from the Medical Residency Training Fund.

“Total submission of about 8,000 names were gotten and the Ministry of Health is scrutinizing them.

“We have done the first round of scrutinizing and they will now compare what they have with the Post-Graduate Medical College and the Chief Medical Directors who submitted the names.

“The Association of Resident Doctors, in each of the tertiary centers, worked with the CMDs to produce those names, but now that the names are being verified.

“We discovered that about 2,000 names shouldn’t be there because they don’t have what is called Postgraduate Reference Numbers of National Postgraduate Medical College and (or) that of the West African Postgraduate Medical College.

“So, this is it and that is the only thing holding back the Residency Fund payment because it is there already for… incurred expenditure has been done by the Finance Minister and an it’s in the Accountant-General’s office.

“So, once they verify the authenticity of those they are submitting, the Accountant-General will pay.

“We are doing that verification because we do not want what …

Health / News

105 Medical Doctors resign in Ondo

The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has expressed concern over the resignation of 105 doctors in the service of Ondo in the last year.

Its State Chairman, Dr. Stella Adegbehingbe and State Secretary, Dr. Olorunfemi Owa in a statement released in Akure blamed the trend on irregular and percentage payment of salaries by the state government.

According to the leadership of the association “Some Departments in the State-owned Teaching Hospital, which could hitherto boast of between 6 and 8 Doctors are now left with 1 or 2 Doctors.

” This makes it practically impossible for the hospital to function at a minimum acceptable level.

“Consequential vacancies in the medical officer cadre need to he urgently tilled. About 50 medical Doctors in this cadre have left the employment of the Hospital Management Board without replacement over the last few months.

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“Yawning vacancies exist in the Resident Doctor and Consultant cadres at the Teaching Hospital.

“These have remained difficult to till due to the haphazard safety payments.

“We have it on good records that about 105 medical doctors have resigned their employment from the Teaching Hospital in the last year alone.

“Ondo State has not been able to engage requisite numbers of House officers since 2019.

“This has made our work almost impossible because this group of Doctors have a peculiar role in Health service delivery.

“It is troubling to note that only three (3) house officers are left in the service of the Ondo State Government across the three senatorial zones.

They added that “There is no gainsaying that the ongoing laudable efforts at having a Contributory Health Insurance Scheme in the state can only be successful if the urgent issue of manpower need is adequately addressed,”…