By Sola Ogundipe

THE management of the Lagos Uni-versity Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba, Lagos has refuted reports of alleged crisis at the health institution. It said the allegations of delayed December 2015 and January 2016 salaries, non payment of Skipping Allowance, among other issues, was an attempt by some minority groups of the Lagos State Branch of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, to give the impression of impending crisis at the institution.

Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Prof. Chris Bode

An open letter to the Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, LUTH branch, made available to Good Health Weekly, stated that LUTH, along with the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan; University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, Benin;  Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, OAUTHC, Ile-Ife, and some other Federal hospitals experienced a delay in payment of December salaries due to a shortfall in personnel emoluments in 2015.

Shortfalls

“Shortfalls were experienced from the central pool from where government platforms pay some medical workers (GIFMIS) and not because of what any hospital did or failed to do. “The situation has been going on for the past few months and are part of the nationwide financial difficulties the new Government is trying hard to ameliorate,” the management noted.

It said the Chief Medical Director, Prof Chris Bode, met three times with the LUTH ARD President and Secretary in the last three weeks where each time the team was updated on several attempts made to help fast-track the payment of the outstanding salaries owed all doctors.  According to the statement, a letter dated 1st February 2016, the CMD pointed out the shortfall in the approved Personnel Emoluments in 2015 noticed from the beginning of the year, and was duly communicated to Government since July, 2015.

“Lots of efforts were made to get funds to pay but the shortfall could not be resolved before the year ran out. This also affected several big institutions such as UCH, OAUTH, UPTH and LUTH. “The Accountant General’s Office and Budget Office are working hard to obtain money to pay us and all other affected hospitals” the statement read.

Good Health Weekly also gathered that the LUTH CMD had confirmed payment of staff January salary  through a letter dated 5th February, 2016, while thanking the doctors for their patience and expressing government assurance to settle the December, 2015 payments as soon as possible.

The letter noted: “Thus, for the ARD President to stand in front of the press on Friday 5th February 2016 and tell Nigerians that his Association was owed two months’ salaries was a blatant lie as his Association members had received their salaries from the Federal Government on the night of Thursday 4th February, 2016. We should praise this government for its gallant efforts in these trying times.”

Call for patience

Urging the doctors to be patient,  the mangement said appeals have been made to the authorities to prevent the recurrent shortfalls in personnel emoluments to our institutions and efforts are being made to convince Government to return doctors to the IPPIS payment platform from which we doctors fought hard to be removed from only two years ago.

“If we had been patient for the initial hiccups experienced on the then newly-introduced IPPIS system to be rectified, we might not be in the situation we now find ourselves. “It is advised that the NMA leadership should make haste slowly and exercise purposeful leadership and maturity over our trainee doctors,” the LUTH management said.