Doctors set for strike over welfare, other packages in Ondo state

VOICE AIR MEDIA, News Update

Doctors in Ondo State, under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, lamented on Friday that medical practitioners have been leaving the state in droves for greener pastures.

According to the doctors who gave the state government a seven-day ultimatum to enhance their welfare packages, threatened to embark on industrial action if their demands are not met.

In a communiqué after the association’s Ordinary General Meeting, OGM, it emphasised that doctors in the state have been subjected to poor welfare packages, with only 22 residents doctors available at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, UNIMEDTHC.

The doctors lamented over the non-implementation of the approved hazard allowance and disparities in the salaries of doctors in the state when compared to other neighbouring states.

The Chairman of NMA in the state, Dr. Omosehin Adeyemi-Osowe, who read the communiqué, disclosed that doctors have refused to take up employment with the state government.

“Ondo State is still using Grade Level 12, Step 3, hence the refusal of doctors to take up employment with the State Civil Service, as witnessed in the last exercise conducted by the Ondo Civil Service Commission.

“Numerous doctors within the Ondo State Civil Service left for greener pastures locally (neighbouring states such as Osun, Lagos, Ekiti, Kwara, and Delta) and internationally in African ountries (Sierra Leone, Gambia, South Africa, etc.) and outside the continent (the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Germany).

“There are only 22 resident doctors at UNIMEDTHC compared to the previous figure of 150 resident doctors.”