Medical doctors fault FG ban on depart of absence

The Nigerian Affiliation of Resident Medical Doctors and the Joint Well-Being Sector Unions have faulted the Federal Authorities’ ban on issuing a departure of absence to well-being professionals going overseas.

NARD and JOHESU stated that the federal authorities should moderately tackle the pull elements, which are making health staff migrate overseas in search of greener pastures, a development popularly known as Japa.

The Minister of State for Well-being, Dr Tunji Alausa, had a final Saturday revealed that the federal government directed that well-being staff going overseas to hunt greener pastures should henceforth resign from their appointments earlier than embarking on such journeys.

Alausa stated that the period of well-being of staff shifting to different nations in search of higher providers after using a depart of absence was now unacceptable.

The minister stated that the ban on leave of absence for well-being staff emanated from a government order issued by President Bola Tinubu as part of drastic steps to fight the problem of mind drain, fondly known as ‘Japa,’ confronting the nation’s well-being sector.

Nevertheless, the President of NARD, Dr Dele Abdullahi, and the Nationwide Chairman of JOHESU, Dr Kabiru Minjibir, in separate interviews with Foxiz NIGERIA on Tuesday, stated that the federal government’s directive was a knee-jerk and fire-brigade strategy to address mind drain within the nation.

Whereas the NARD president appreciated the Federal Ministry of Well-being and Social Welfare for trying to guard the well-being sector, he stated that the ministry was misinformed about defending and maintaining professionals throughout the system.

“Healthcare staff, like different civil servants, are being guided by the civil service rule, and healthcare staff leaving the nation don’t take depart of absence; most of them resign, and a few abscond. Most people taking a leave of absence are going to come back again. For those who now say you wish to deny all people’s absence, are you saying healthcare staff are usually not allowed to go for coaching outside the nation? What if the Department of Absence goes for coaching throughout the country?

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“I get the place that is coming from as a result of entirely different excuses have been given as regards why we’ve got a scarcity of healthcare staff within the nation, which isn’t true. They are saying they wish to enhance the recruitment of well-being staff; however, have they taken uncooked statistics of the recruitment within the final two years, and how many of the newly recruited are throughout the system?

“You say that you simply wish to enhance the variety of medical college students; however, have you ever regarded the coaching capability of those establishments and what the output seems like? I feel the concepts are good, however they don’t seem to be well-researched, and the key stakeholders within the system are usually not being consulted to make these strikes and if we proceed this fashion, we is not going to get wherever,” he stated.

Abdullahi argued that the federal government should tackle the push elements of the mind drain to retain healthcare staff within the nation.

“The nations pulling them want them, so they know they’re good at their work. Because it stands proper now, a dental medical practitioner was kidnapped in Abuja. Three months in the past, a healthcare provider was kidnapped in Kaduna. The price of residing has gone up, the safety is low, the ability to provide is worse, and the amenities we work in are substandard. Each week, there’s an assault case within the hospitals. At the Nnamdi Azikiwe Instructing Hospital, Nnewi, a nurse was crushed to the purpose of loss of life by an affected person’s relative as a result of misplaced one particular person.

“Many of the doctors within the college are impoverished, and most of them don’t have allowances. There may also be the difficulty of non-payment of our arrears and the fact that our salaries are meagre. So, all of those are the elements we have to tackle.

“Remuneration is the key issue that makes individuals depart. The stakeholders have to be concerned to examine the push elements,” the NARD president stated.

Equally, JOHESU chief Minjibir stated the federal government wanted to deal with the well-being of staff’s calls to cease the mind drain.

He stated, “We don’t help the minister’s assertion because what they should do to sort out mind drain is deal with the problems at the bottom and not issue provocative statements.

“We have now made our factors that what causes mind drain is the difficulty of non-implementation of the stipulated allowances, the wage isn’t one thing to write down house about, the situation of service for well-being staff may be very unhealthy, and they need to present the mandatory gear for well-being staff. So, allow them to tackle the problems so that well being staff can cease travelling overseas to hunt greener pastures.”