Doctors in public and private health facilities in Ekiti State have threatened to embark on industrial action effective from April 7, if the state government fails to reverse the ‘outrageous tax’ imposed on its members, as well meet their other demands.
The doctors, under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, also demanded immediate restoration of Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS, to their members at the local government level.
NMA State Chairman, Dr. Obitade Obimakinde, said the grouse of the doctors, which the state government should address to avert the strike, included implementation of specialist allowance to consultants working at the Hospital Management Board, computation of retirement benefits for doctors using CONMESS template and immediate release of running grants to general and specialist hospitals.
The NMA boss, who said the decision to embark on the strike which would begin with a three-day warning strike effective from April 7, was arrived at during their Ordinary General Meeting of Thursday, March 27, after the government failed to meet their demands despite several meetings with Governor Kayode Fayemi on the lingering crises bedeviling the sector.
Obimakinde, who said the high tax being paid by the doctors had been affecting their wellbeing, added that their members in the public sector would participate in the warning strike, “since they too were being affected by the outrageous tax regime.”
He regretted that the non-release of running grants to the state general hospitals had paralysed health services in that cadre, which he described as inimical to the well-being of the Ekiti populace.
The NMA chair traced the daily high patronage of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, ESUTH, for cases that ought to be handled by the general hospitals to poor management of the sector.
But the State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Olusola Fasuba, said actions were being taken on the doctors’ demands, following series of meeting, many of which Governor Fayemi was involved.
Fasuba, who said the governor had instructed that all medical doctors serving in state establishments should be given uniform tax rates, added that the Local Government Service Commission had also been instructed to restore CONMESS to the doctors at local government level.
He said the issue of running grants had also been addressed as hospitals were being given concession on this.
However, he expressed dismay with the doctors for threatening to embark on sundry issues, saying: “I’m not impressed by the actions of these doctors. This is not the way they were trained. We need to embrace dialogue, we need to be patient.
“We know the activities of many of them; they hardly stay at their duty posts. They cannot blackmail me, they should do their home work properly,” he said.
(Nat'l Mirror)
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