TEXT OF PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT OF NIGERIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (NMA), DR. DANIEL GANA, mni, ON THE 1ST OF MARCH 2008 AT THE NATIONAL SECRETARIAT OF THE NMA, 74, ADENIYI JONES AVENUE, IKEJA, LAGOS.

Gentlemen of the Press,

INTRODUCTION

I am sure you are aware of the situation of the health sector in Nigeria. The problem of the deplorable condition of the health services, poor motivation of human resources, lack of adequate and modern facilities, brain drain leading to unacceptably poor health indices culminating in the recent rating of Nigeria as one of the poorest countries by the WHO in terms of the health care services.

This is not recent indeed, twenty years ago, the Nigerian Medical Association sent a position paper to the government on these problems and has always reminded the government over the years on these issues. Sadly, the predictions of the NMA have become reality with clinical efficiency.

Today,

1. Infant mortality rate is 100/1000 live birth

2. Under 5 years mortality is 201/1000 live birth

3. Neonatal mortality rate is 48/1000 live birth

4. Maternal mortality rate is 800-1500/100,000 live birth.

5. Life expectancy is 44 years.

Indeed, Nigeria ranks 3rd from below the health sector performance. (188 out of 191 member countries of WHO) The World Health Report 2006 listed 57 countries (including 36 in sub-Saharan Africa) with shortages so severe that it is not possible for these countries to provide basic health care to their populations. The Report also called for a decade of action which started with the launch of Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) as an independent stakeholder partnership and a platform for joint action by member states, UN and multilateral agencies, the health professions, academia, civil society and foundations. GHWA is hosted and administered by the World Health Organization. (WHO).

NEGOTIATION WITH GOVERNMENT

One of the ways to solve this problem is adequate motivation of the health workers. The need for the correction of this historical and perpetual injustice led to the notice of industrial dispute with the Federal Government by the Nigerian Medical Association. Sadly, Government’s response has been very slow until very recently. This has led to disenchantment by the rank and file of the association. At the expiration of the self-giving ultimatum of February 29th 2008 by government to conclude all arrangement for a new welfare package for health workers, no such package has been delivered to the health sector. We however, take cognizance of the efforts of the technical committee of the Health Ministry, the Honourable Minister of Health, the National Assembly and the Presidency/ Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government in the reports prepared and the invitation to begin a higher level negotiation on these reports. Though we have serious objections to these reports, we are however ready to start further negotiations and provide unassailable evidence of the corrections of our demands. In the light of this, we hereby extend the ultimatum to government by four (4) weeks believing that all issues related to this problem would have been resolve by then. The Emergency Delegates Meeting (EDM) to review the options of the Association is hereby postponed by four(4) weeks.

MEDICAL AND DENTAL COUNCIL OF NIGERIA (MDCN)

The Nigerian Medical Association is worried about the premature dissolution of MDCN the Council that regulates the practise of Medicine, Dentistry and Alternative Medicine in Nigeria without immediate reconstitution of the Council. The current situation by which the Federal Ministry of Health is attempting to take over the function of the Council is illegal and contrary to the provisions of Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, Cap M8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2000. The functions of the Council which include Registration of Doctors, Annual re-licensing of doctors, accreditation of Institutions for the training of doctors and professional discipline of doctors CANNOT be performed by the Federal Ministry of Health or any Committee constituted by it. The Ministry cannot by law appoint or terminate the Registrar or any of the officers of the Council. The law is clear that the Minister of Health cannot give instructions to MDCN on any matters relating to a specific issue or a specific person. It is therefore, imperative that the Council be reconstituted immediately.

We implore President Umar Yar’Adua to appoint a suitable Medical or Dental Practitioner as Chairman of Council as required of him by law so that the Council can be reconstituted without further delay. This is urgent because a number of issues especially accreditation of Medical and Dental schools, registration of foreign doctors and discipline of practitioners are currently on hold.

INDUSTRIAL ACTION BY RESIDENT DOCTORS

The Nigerian Medical Association has noted that there have been series of industrial actions by local branches of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) all over the country for one reason or the other. The NMA has tried to intervene at different times to ensure that Medical services are not completely paralyzed. The NMA does not recognize any National leadership of Resident Doctors at the moment and efforts have been put in place to ensure that a united National leadership of Resident Doctors emerges before the Annual Delegates Meeting (ADM) to be held at the end of April 2008.

ANNUAL DELEGATE MEETING (ADM)

The Annual General Conference and the Delegate Meeting of the Association, which is the highest decision making body of the Association, will hold in Kaduna, Kaduna State from April 30th to May 4th 2008.

Finally, the Association wishes to disagree and condemn Senator Hamberga’s statement on doctors stealing drugs and equipments – Hospitals. This is palpably false; doctors neither keep drugs nor equipments. We challenge the Senator to name one single individual who has done that. Overall, we commend the generality of Senators for their understanding of the issues at stake.

Thanks you.

Dr. Daniel Gana, mni President