PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE NIGERIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION IN ABUJA ON 23RD OF FEBRUARY, 2007

It is with a sad mind that I address you this morning on the current lingering crisis in the Nigerian health sector. As we are addressing this press conference, Nigeria still has one of the worst health indices in the world. We are all aware that Nigeria was rated 187 out of 190 member countries in health sector performances.

MMR 800 – 1500/100,000 live births

IMR over 100/1000 live births

Under five mortality ratio over 100/1000

Life expectancy 42 years

Despite the proffered effort at improving our hospitals, nothing seems to be happening in practical terms at all levels of health care delivery system in Nigeria. This is mainly due to the low morale of the health workforce.

Health care at all levels has virtually collapsed. Doctors can hardly be found in most General Hospitals and Primary Health Care centers in Nigeria.

Key to this problem is the poor emphasis by government on human capital development in the health sector and the low morale of the health work force.

The Nigerian Medical Association (N.M.A) as a responsible and responsive association has being trying to dialogue with the Federal Ministry of Health on how to improve on human resource level and by implication the health indices of Nigeria and the attainment of the MDGS. All these attempts have come to knot over the years.

When the Shonekan panel came on board, the association in her memorandum and physical appearance before the panel enumerated what we felt should be the way forward in improving our human resources base in the healthcare industry.

Considering the way doctors emigrated in droves outside the country, one of the minimal ways to improve the situation is the re-establishment of the Medical Salary Scale (M.S.S), which has been in existence in the past. This we believe will give us a salary structure that will be universally applicable at the federal, state and local governments. This, we believe, will arrest emigration of Doctors out of the country. It will also arrest the drift from the local and state to the federal civil service and doctors at all these levels will not feel inferior to each other as the standard of training of doctors in Nigeria is universal.

While we are talking of a diminishing work force, some of our leaders are busy worsening the situation. Case in point is that of the federal capital territory where young Doctors in their twenties and thirties are being retired in the guise of rightsizing even against the criteria set down by the federal government on rightsizing. Every effort to date to ensure that these young professionals who still have a lot to offer humanity in the health care sector has fallen on deaf ears. The association is demanding for immediate Reabsorption of these young professionals into the health services of the Federal Capital Territory Administration.

It is also the association’s belief that the appointment of a Surgeon General and the establishment of the Health Services Commission are long overdue. The Commission will be in a position to coordinate all health professionals in the country and be in a position to do appropriate job evaluation and job placement for health care professionals. One other reasons for advocating this is that we found out that the health ministry is not really in charge of generating circulars that placed health professionals on the salary scales released by Government and often times we found such circulars to be at variance with what it should be in a field where there are certain ways health care professional relate to each other.

Government is talking of SERVICOM within the Health industry without producing a conducive environment with which those in the health care industry can ensure the success of SERVICOM. We maintain that it is laudable to monitize accommodation but that government should provide enough funds for doctors and other health workers to acquire accommodation close to their place of work to ensure quality and appropriate service delivery that will ensure the success of SERVICOM.

In furtherance of the association’s constructive engagement and in line with the mandate of the delegates meeting, the association has been in dialogue with the Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Labour, Office of the Head of Service, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Bureau of Public Service Reforms over the past five days with the hope to resolve the lingering issues brought before the government. We are however sad to inform you that this noble attempt at resolving the issues have been rebuffed by the Federal Ministry of Health charged with the responsibility of generating the technical memo to the Bureau of Public Reform or the Presidency as the case may be. Accordingly, the association will therefore have to give full expression to the resolutions reached at the Emergency Delegates Meeting of 10th February 2007. Accordingly, all Doctors are to withdraw Call Duty Services with effect from Monday the 26th February 2007.

We also use this medium to appeal to all people of good conscience and well meaning Nigerians to explore the remaining one week before total withdrawal of services to prevail on the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Government in particular to listen to the yearnings of Nigerian Medical and Dental practitioners.

We salute the courage, resilience and sacrifice of Nigerian Doctors, who have chosen to remain in Nigeria to serve their fatherland.

We sympathize with the ordinary Nigerians who are likely to suffer from this unfortunate and preventable crisis and who have no opportunity to travel abroad for medical treatment for all kinds of ailments as our many top governmental officials often do. It is our hope that these top government officials would direct the public funds being wasted on their overseas treatment productively in improving our health care delivery system for the generality of Nigerians.

May God help us all.

Dr. Rotimi Adewoye 1st Vice President

Dr. Is’haq Abdul Secretary-General