The Federal Government has plans to forestall future strikes by doctors and other health workers in the country.
The government is taking proactive measures by reviewing the salary structures of medical doctors, under the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and Consolidated Health Salary Structure.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, gave the hint when he hosted a delegation of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) yesterday in Abuja.
During the meeting, the NMA president, Dr. Uche Ojinmah, listed the challenges facing doctors in Nigeria, especially the review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS).
In a statement by the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations, Olajide Osundun, the NMA president said: “It is sad to tell you that the most pressing challenge facing Nigerian doctors is the review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, which has been overdue by eight years. We wrote to our parent Ministry of Health on June 5, 2022, seeking a meeting, just as other previous national officers of NMA have written since 2014 for the same issue and without result.
“Recall that it is the 2009 Agreement that yielded CONMESS and we agreed with the government that it would be reviewed in five years and that five years was up in 2014, and this 2022. Nothing has been done about this. We wrote in June to the Ministry of Health to ask for a discussion over this. The meetings they convened were all structured to fail.”
The NMA president regretted the inability of the officials of the Ministry of Health to resolve the lingering issue and urged Ngige to take over the matter and ensure its speedy resolution before the general assembly of the NMA scheduled for December 11, 2022.
