Federal Government of Nigeria To Ban NMA, JOHESU Over Incessant Strikes.

                            
Miffed by recurring industrial actions in the health sector, the Federal Government may be considering the options of either proscribing the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) or privatizing all public health institutions.


A senior government official, Wednesday, in Abuja told The Nigerian Times that President Goodluck Jonathan is presently being advised on what to do in the situation, as the Federal Government is caught in the middle of the inter-union rivalry between the NMA and JOHESU that leaves many Nigerians without health care as often as they go on strike.

The NMA embarked on an indefinite strike action since July 1st, demanding among 24 things the payment of N13 billion wage demands for 2014, reserving the position of Chief Medical director to only medical doctors, appointment of Surgeon General of the Federation, passage of National Health Bill, providing security for doctors, increase in duty hazard and specialist allowances, as well as budget for residency training programme, reintegration of its members into the IPPIS platform, and reserving the title of consultants to only medical doctors.

The government officer revealed to The Nigerian Times that while government is negotiating with the medical doctors to return to work immediately and agreeing on many of the terms, JOHESU has written to the Ministry of Health of its plan to embark on another strike action in the event that government concedes to the demands of the doctors.

He said: “We cannot continue like this. NMA today, JOHESU tomorrow, and it has become a cat and mouse game. No responsible government will allow its employees hold it to ransom especially in a peculiar case like this.

“In the event that the Federal Government tows this course of action, the military will be deployed to guard the medical institutions with military and para-military medical professionals rendering services in the mean time.

“Then the ‘no work no pay’ principle will be enforced, doctors who are interested will be protected to resume duties while new ones will be employed to take their place.”

In a related development, Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Health Ndudi Elumelu, who also is a medical doctor, has given a hint that his Committee will be recommending the privatization of medical centres and hospitals maintained by government.

He made this disclosure at the third reconciliatory meeting between the NMA, Health Ministry and the Finance Ministry his committee convened on July 22.

Elumelu called for alternative ways of funding the country’s health sector which according to him has been paralysed by incessant strikes.

Also, the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) has described the ongoing nationwide strike by the NMA as selfish, unethical and illegal, alleging that the strike was a well calculated and orchestrated plan by the doctors to divert patients to their private clinics to milk them of their hard earned resources.

In a statement by the Secretary General of NANNM, Yusuf Badmus, on Sunday in Abuja, the union advised the Federal Government to “stop all government employed doctors from establishing private clinics while still in government employment, for the benefit of the citizens of this nation.”

“They should be called to order because their incessant strike is a gimmick to further divert innocent patients to their private clinics, where they (the doctors) stand to benefit.

“The government should have a rethink on the undue attention they give them and do what is right.

“The government should revert to the era when administrators administered the hospitals/health facilities while health professionals, including doctors do their professional duties that they are being paid for.

“The difference should be entry/exit points and professional/peculiar allowances of the different cadres of workers.

“This will go a long way towards checking and preventing unhealthy rivalry and end the incessant strike action, which leaves the innocent patient to suffer,” Badmus stated.

In an interview granted by the NMA President, Kayode Obembe, he said everybody should know that medical doctors in Nigeria are also human beings with blood, bones and flesh and as a result, they actually feel bad that the association should degenerate to such a condition.

According to Obembe, the doctors do not want to take the lives of the Nigerian citizens for a ride and as a result of that efforts are being made to make sure that hospital services are restored.

He said: “One thing I want to make clear is that we were also pushed to the wall before we had to go to this length. And some of the things we are talking about now, we have been discussing for years, and they are coming up again. I want to emphasise this: as far as this strike is concerned, the earlier the government listens to us and we restore services, the better for all of us.

“What I can say is that some of the demands we are making will actually forestall any (possible) industrial action in the future, if the government goes by our plan. Most of the demands that we are making are based on the question of relativity.

“Relativity actually implies that if you make any adjustment in the salary of any member of the health sector, doctors are not going on strike to make their own demands again. They should just use it (the relativity formula) to calculate that of a doctor. This is also what is happening overseas. In the United Kingdom, the salaries and remunerations of doctors are automatically adjusted, if there is inflation.

“Consequently, the demands we are making, if government approves, is that there will no longer be industrial action on the basis of remuneration. But then, that is if government keeps its own side of the bargain.

“In the same vein, most of the things we are asking for are things that have, in fact, existed before. Accordingly, if they restore to status quo what has always existed in teaching hospitals, we have no contention with going back to work. For example, teaching hospitals have always been known to have consultants. If government restores what has been happening before, we can’t go on strike on that. In view of all this, I can say that if government keeps its own side of the bargain, there will be no strike in the foreseeable future. But here is the proviso: they must keep their own side of the bargain.”

Concerning the rivalry between medical doctors and other health workers Obembe said: “We are not fighting over superiority. And nobody is contending over our superiority. That’s not the language. We’ve always expressed this to the public: all the issues of superiority, leadership and harmony, in fact, don’t exist.

“It is some people fabricating that. All we have in the health sector are people who have been trained to do certain jobs. For example, as a medical doctor, one can receive training as a gynaecologist, obstetrician, radiologist and others. I cannot go and do the work of a nurse, or a medical laboratory scientist.

“It is not a question of superiority. It is not a question of one being bigger than the other. Therefore, everybody needs to work according to his profession and according to what he’s been trained for. We’re not attaching any priority or superiority and nobody is challenging us about our superiority – our leadership. There is nobody we’re referring to as being inferior; there’s no inferiority complex we’re ascribing to anybody.

“The structure of the health sector can simply be illustrated as having doctors and non-doctors; or you can say medical and non-medical workers. You can also refer to the non-medical personnel as allied health workers.

“Occasionally, the non-medical professionals are referred to as paramedics or allied medical workers or allied health professionals. That’s basically the structure; that’s how the hospital operates.

“The medical personnel are those made up of doctors and are trained according to the medical school curriculum; they can become consultants on that line. The non-medical workforce, which include the nurses, pharmacists, medical laboratory scientists, and others who are working in the hospital, are all in the allied professions. That’s the simple way of explaining the structure to outsiders.”