Such a decision emanating from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting should not be taken lightly especially when it has to do with a body that is perceived to have been taking advantage of its very indispensable position in the society to threaten and blackmail government with incessant industrial action.

As duly certified professionals in the country, it is expected of them to practice within the ambit of the law, which obviously disallows the two-faced engagement that only ends up paying the doctors more than their employers and ordinary Nigerians, who make use of public health institutions.

For long, some medical personnel working in government health facilities have damned consequences and displayed some unprofessional attitude.

Using the public platform to generate patients for their private clinics has become very rampant among some medical personnel while also blackmailing the government over nonavailability of adequate equipment to attend to the nation’s health needs.

They exhibited this attitude for years without recourse to the fact that those who patronise public healthcare institutions do so for two reasons; the first being to get close attention from specialists while also being guided by their pecuniary endowment.

While not holding brief for the Federal Government over any issue or on the latest decision to curtail the excesses of the medical personnel, it is, however, necessary to mention that the Federal Government should not take lightly the reaction of the leadership of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) that its (government) Before the government makes good its threat…

it must also put its own house in order pronouncement was a time bomb waiting for explosion. Much as the government, being their employer reserves the right to decide and enforce their commitment to duty, the doctors also feel the need to exercise their rights albeit in a manner that appears not to put a question mark on their loyalty to the Hippocratic Oath as well as the labour law.

In a bid to defend their stance, the President of NARD, Federal Medical Centre Abuja, Dr. Emmanuel Obayi, had described the ban as having the potential of leaving public health institutions in disarray owing to the fact that most doctors operating in the public sector are poorly remunerated and forced to work in harsh conditions.

To him, the ban could trigger a mass exodus of quality brains from public health institutions established to cater to the needs of the poor in the society to the private sector where the remuneration is not only higher and more regular but also boasts of better infrastructure and quality working environment.

This again highlights the fact that patients, who struggle to make ends meet under the current economic situation, will remain victims of the odd arrangement, which smacks of extortionist tendencies as those who are already well off in the society either travel out of the country for their health needs or visit local first grade facilities, whose owners or employees hardly have anything to do with government hospitals.

Also, comparing what they earn here in Nigeria to what some other countries pay their doctors is uncalled for at the moment as they are fully aware of the difference before taking up the jobs.

Apart from engaging in the unethical labour conduct, the option of resigning from public office employment is open to the doctors instead of threatening a total shutdown of the nation’s health system as well as reminding everybody of a possible brain drain in the health institutions if the government dares to wield the big stick.

However, before the government makes good its threat, which may end up worsening an already bad situation, it must also put its own house in order.

The recent revelation about the state of Aso Rock Clinic by the First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, is a microcosm of a larger picture of the rot in government institutions.

Everybody was alarmed when it was made known that a hospital of that status had no medical consumables as little syringes and other necessary first aid drugs even with a budget of over N3 billion.

Nigerians had expected heads to roll especially beginning with the Chief Medical Director, but that was not to be as further investigations revealed that the over N3 billion mentioned by the first lady was just on paper as far less than that was made available to the clinic.

While we believe in the ability of workers to express their freedom and exercise their rights under the law, we are, however, of the opinion that such should not do any damage to the ordinary Nigerian who has been the hardest hit in every contention between government and professional bodies.

Source: New telegram