Doctors criticise UUTH over poor working condition

Doctors criticise UUTH over poor working condition

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african american medical nurse handshaking with senior patient

RESIDENT doctors at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, have criticised the management of the institution over its hard stance towards their welfare.

The doctors, who spoke with journalists under the aegis of the National Association of Resident Doctors on Sunday, said inhuman working conditions had forced them to embark on indefinite and total strike.

The association’s president, Dr. Christian Adeneye, said the most annoying aspect was the management’s rejection of the directives of the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Salaries and Wages Commission to implement full emoluments.

He named UUTH as one of the three hospitals that had refused to implement the correct entry point for House Officers as directed by the Federal Ministry of Health.

Adeneye revealed that the association also frowned upon the high income tax being deducted from their salaries, noting that the deduction was far in excess of what their counterparts in other federal health institutions were paying.

“The University of Uyo Teaching Hospital has refused to comply with the directives issued at a joint meeting of NARD, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria Medical Association, the Senate, and the House Committee on Health.

“The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget Office, National Salary and Wages Commission, all Federal Tertiary Hospitals have been mandated to commence full payment of salaries to all doctors from July 2016,” Adeneye said.

He alleged that the management of the hospital had been inconsistent in remitting members’ pension contributions and its own counterpart funding to Pension Fund Administrators.

He explained that since the resident doctors were not full employees of the hospital, there was the tendency of their pension contribution to be lost when they retire, adding that there was need for the money to be remitted promptly.

The association’s president stated that the hospital management had also refused to sponsor members of the association for update courses and examinations in the past eight months.

He noted that even members who were upgraded had not been paid their arrears up to date.

He said, “The Association has noted with dismay the unfair denial of terminal salaries to six of our House Officers for the month of June 2016; stampeding them into work without pay, in spite of the plea made by the association in a letter dated July 18, 2016 with Reference No. ARD/SEC/0716/026.”

The doctors also called on the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, and other well-meaning Akwa Ibom people to intervene in the matter as they were not happy to go on strike.

He said though the doctors were very passionate about their patients, they would not be able to work without salaries.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Etete Peters, ascribed the non-payment of the resident doctors’ salaries to the drop in revenue accruable to the hospital.

He stated that the hospital in 2015 received N4.2bn from the FG, as against the N3.9bn in 2016.

Peters added that management was working assiduously to alleviate the suffering of the resident doctors in the hospital, adding that the problem of lack of funds was not peculiar to the hospital.

He appealed to the striking doctors to return to work for the sake of the suffering patients, as the hospital had been working on how to resolve the issues.

PUNCH.

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