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Resident doctors protest non-payment of teaching allowances
Written by Sade Oguntola Thursday, 30 December 2010
President, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, Dr Amaechi Nwachukwu, has asked the Federal Ministry of Health to withdraw its circular that excluded some cadres of medical doctors from receiving teaching allowances.
Dr. Nwachukwu, speaking at the ARD secretariat, said the Federal Ministry of Health needed to redefine what was meant by teaching allowance because different cadres of doctors teach despite their primary assignments.
According to him, “the job of medical doctors is not primarily to teach. But every cadre of doctor no matter how junior they are in medical profession teach in at one level or the other. The consultants teach senior registrars, who go for Part Two fellowship examinations and even the medical officers teach house officers who go for their final MBBS examination. That is exactly what we are saying.”
Dr Nwachukwu said “if they want to go by the circular that they wrote, then every cadre of doctors must be paid.”
He stated that without the review of the circular dated 6th of December, 2010 and signed by the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, industrial crisis in the health sector might occur in the New Year.
According to him, “more crises may be generated by this new circular that exempt some cadres of doctors from teaching allowance. This is a national issue. This same feeling I am sure will erupt in many other teaching hospitals. So the earlier they review their stand and pay people their money and also not go back to deduct earlier amounts paid the better for peace to reign.”
Last Thursday, patients at the University College Hospital were disappointed by members of the ARD, who withdrew their services to protest the stoppage of teaching allowances as well as the deduction of the amounts paid in previous months.
The strike, which lasted till the end of the day’s work, was later on resolved after a meeting with the management of the hospital.
Mr Toye Akinrinola, head of UCH’s Public relations Department, confirming the resolve of the management to look into the grievances of the resident doctors, stated that the said circular was issued by the Federal Ministry of Health last week Wednesday.
According to him, the new circular was meant to clarify an ambiguity in the earlier circular from the ministry which stipulated that medical workers involved in teaching should be paid teaching allowances.
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