• Monarch blasts doctors, alleges insensitivity
Cracks have emerged within the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) with members of its national executive disagreeing on whether to continue or suspend the nationwide strike which started on July 1.
This is even as the Asagba of Asaba, Obi Chike Edozien came hard on the striking doctors over their demands of headship and consultant titles of government hospitals.
Signs of a split in the NMA executive became glaring yesterday evening when a press conference scheduled for the Abuja headquarters of the association was called off after journalists had waited for over an hour.
The Secretary-General, Dr Adewunmi Alayela, apologised to journalists to bear with the NMA, promising that the media will be furnished with the outcome of the meeting within 48 hours.
The NMA had sent 24 demands to the government including discontinuation of recognition of non-medical doctors as directors and consultant title to any other health worker, other than medical doctors.
The demands also include appointment of a surgeon-general of the federation, clinical duty and hazard allowances and withdrawal of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) circular on medical laboratory equipment.
The emergency meeting called by the NMA executive was also attended by past presidents of the association. Those at the meeting include its immediate-past president and delegate to the ongoing National Conference, Dr. Osahon Enabulele; another past president, and Kogi State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Omede Idris and Dr. Prosper Igboeli.
Other stakeholders at the meeting were member, Board of Trustees of the NMA and Emir of Songa, Haliru Yahaya; Registrar, National Post-Graduate Medical College, Prof. Wole Atoyebi and former Chairman, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, who is also with the Benue State Unjversity Teaching Hospital, Makurdi.
Sources at the meting said participants were sharply divided on the next line of action to be taken by the association. He said: “The NMA leadership is divided on the strike; while some led by its incumbent president, Dr. Kayode Obembe, are pushing for the suspension of the action, others said they aren’t in support of calling off the action as the Federal Government hasn’t taken concrete steps to address doctors’ grievances.
“If we suspend the strike at this point, the present government and even subsequent governments won’t take us serious any time we declare nation-wide strike. That is the major issue and not any insinuation that somebody has been settled.”
Meanwhile, a monarch, a professor of medicine, said the strike has claimed lives across the country, adding however, that while the doctors have the right to embark on strike, they should have put in place skeletal services to save lives.
Prof. Edozien, said while celebrating his 89th birthday in Asaba that the title of consultant is not restricted to medical doctors, insisting that it cuts across, depending on what profession one belongs.
“Doctors have the right to restrict or withdraw their services if they feel dissatisfied with their condition of service. Even if they chose to go on strike because their job involves saving of lives, they should have put in place skeletal services for patients. It is inhuman to go on strike and deny patients health services.
“It is the practice in most developed countries that the head of medical services should be a medical doctor. Many people are involved in health services in a hospital and the medical doctor is the head.
“But a medical doctor may not necessarily be the head of a hospital. In some countries, the Minister of Health is a medical doctor while in most others he is not. When it comes to delivery of health services, the Surgeon-General who is a doctor, is the head,” he said.
According to him, the head of government hospital in Britain, “for instance, is the House Governor, who may not necessarily be a medical doctor, but provision of medical services is headed by a medical doctor. Consultancy is not restricted to only medical doctors, it cuts across, depending on what profession you belong.”
The NMA had on Tuesday, July 1, embarked on an indefinite strike. Its president, Dr Obembe, who made the announcement at a news conference in Abuja, said the decision followed the expiration of a two-week ultimatum it gave the Federal Government to meet its 24-point demand. Obembe said the association opted for a “total and indefinite strike” at an emergency delegates meeting held on June 28 after negotiations with the Federal Government failed to yield relevant results.
“The NMA is taking this painful route because our silence and gentle approach to these contending issues have been taken for granted,” he said. “We have to take this action in order to save the health care delivery system from anarchy that is palpably imminent.”
He appealed for understanding and called on Nigerians to prevail on the government to meet the demands. The NMA president read out an open letter addressed to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in which the association listed the 24 issues it wanted the government to address.
THE SUN
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