By Sola Ogundipe
THE last may yet to be heard about the recent  approval of new salary structures in the nation’a health sector as the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria is raising dust over the the stand of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) on the issue.

This development is arising just as the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) is demanding implementation of certain correcetions in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) in view of  observations and request  earlier sent to the Minister of Health.

The NEC while welcoming approval of the CONHESS package for other health workers, had  insisted that the temporary existing relativity of 4:2:1.72 in emoluments; be maintained noting that any deviation was unacceptable and likely to trigger industrial unrest in the health sector.

But in swift reaction, pharmacists under the aegis of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria(PSN) say the NMA should not be allowed to dictate to other health workers. Urging  government to re-focus so as to avoid a major catastrophe in the health sector in the months ahead.

In a release entitled “Professional Recklessness” the PSN observed that the  statement credited to the President and National Secretary of the NMA … to negotiate wages for its members and proceed to dictate what others can earn as “a grievously despicable act which has been encouraged by the Federal government since 1991 when late Olikoye Ransome Kuti imposed the Medical Salary Scale (MSS) on the Public sector in utter disregard of due process, as the Medical Salary Scale (MSS) proposal was tabled at a Federal Executive Council meeting without inputs of the Labour Ministry at that time.”

The statement aid doctors had argued in the 90’s that the major imperative for the Medical Salary Scale (MSS) was the prevalent economic hardship and the brain-drain syndrome in the health sector. The PSN said it believes that it is a matter of commonsense that the economically inclined problems affect all workers in Nigeria including those in the healthcare sector.

It said: “It is strange and unimaginable in the antecedents of labour struggles for groups to negotiate what they want and still insist on being sole determinnts of what other aggrieved colleagues/workers must earn.

“For too long stakeholders in health and government have allowed doctors to glamourise by giving the impression that healthcare begins and ends with the input and outputs of doctors. We find it necessary   to remind the Federal government that the politics of wages and salaries in organised labour has not attained equilibrium since 1991 when the Medical Salary Scale (MSS) was introduced by the Babangida government.

It said the discriminatory wages for doctors in the 90’s triggered agitations for exclusive wages for University lecturers, teachers in public schools (TSS) and other group of workers.

“We are aware that medical ethics globally encourages the appreciation of the skills and experience of other health workers and the team concepts in healthcare delivery in so far as this contributes to the care of patients and we ask where indeed is medical ethics in Nigeria.

The statement said the PSN  believes there must be reward for labour for all categories of workers in Nigeria and reiterated strongly that irrespective of the many unnecessary salary nomenclatures, government must embrace the recommendations of its own job evaluation report conducted on all health workers in Nigeria by the Federal Ministry of Health and Office of the Head of Service of the Federation.

That appraisal process took Federal Government Officials too many States of the federation and the various teams discovered that over 97.5 per cent of those who visited Doctors ended up in Pharmacy Departments for drug therapy which is still the prime solution in most clinical discourses.

The job evaluation report prescribed a ratio 10:8.7 in the fixing of wages of Doctors and Pharmacists. We reluctantly accepted this because of the extra year