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By Demola Akinyemi, Ilorin

The Nigeria Association of Government Medical and Dental Practitioners, (NAGMDP) Kwara Chapter, on Tuesday, threatened to withdraw their services across the state, over what they described as poor remuneration.

Chairman of Kwara NAGMDP and his Secretary Dr Saka Agboola, and Dr Ayinde Musa, respectively jointly signed the letter made available to journalists in Ilorin.

Members of the association gave September 13,2021 as the deadline for the state government to meet their demands following which they will embark on strike. 

The letter which was addressed to Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, of Kwara and other stakeholders, stated that the threat is a result of poor remuneration and poor conditions of service.

The association lamented that “this has resulted to a major cause of mass resignation and brain drain which we are currently experiencing among doctors and other health care workers in the State”.

“With reference to the letter sent to your Excellency dated 16th of June 2021 titled ‘Letter of request’ and subsequent reminders dated 13th and 27th of July 2021 respectively, drawing the attention of your Excellency.

“On Friday 20th of August 2021, an emergency general meeting of the Nigeria Association of Government  Medical and Dental Practitioner Kwara State Chapter was held,” it said.

According to the letter, “the sole agenda of the meeting was to brief the general house on the effort and doggedness of the State  Executives Council to bring to the Governor’s attention, the need to better reposition the conditions of service of our member and other relevant health care  workers.”

It added that.” this is necessary, in order to prevent the imminent collapse of the health care system in our state.”

The association insisted that” the state government must recruit more medical officers in addition to constant replacement of those that are resigning on daily basis.”

“There should be the provision of adequate security in all of our hospitals to avoid breaking down of laws and order by the patient and their relatives.

“The state government should provide patient relatives building in hospitals, where relatives can be in comfort, while health workers take care of their relatives on admission,” it said.

The association also called for “payment of COVID-19 allowance to members and other health care workers, as well as provision of vehicle and housing loan facility at single digit interest rate to all members as a way of motivation and retention in service.

“There must be the provision of adequate basic medical equipment in all our hospitals.

“Domestication of residency training Act in the state to afford our members who are interested in the pursuit of their postgraduate medical education.

“Recruitment of other cadres of health workers especially nurses across the State and improvement in their remuneration so as to also retain them in the service of the state,” it also said.

The association threatened that if their demands are not met by the 13th of Sept. 2021, “we shall have no alternative than to withdraw the service of our members across all the hospitals in the State.

“While we hope the government and its relevant ministry will do the needful by avoiding unnecessary disruption of health care services across the state, please accept the assurance of our best regards”.

Reacting to this development, Mr Oladimeji Sa’ad-Aluko, the Director-General of Kwara State Hospital Management Bureau said that the governor has been looking at modalities concerning the salary increase agitation of the association.

He explained that the issue of salary increase is not peculiar to Kwara alone but to the whole country, adding that the Federal Government is also unable to solve the issues they have with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

“The government is taking decisive effort towards making sure that we are able to meet those demands before the stipulated date that they have given the government.

“The government is ensuring that no stone is left unturned so that everything we need to do to make sure that next month or next year they will not come back and ask for another increase,” he said.

Sa’ad-Aluko added that the government has approved the recruitment of more hospital staff, adding that the approval has been sent to the Civil Service Commission to Carry out the proper employment procedure.

Vanguard News Nigeria