El-Rufai urged to address shortfall in doctors’ salaries

The Kaduna State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association has urged Governor Nasir ElRufai to correct the perpetual shortfall in salaries of doctors in the state.

Addressing newsmen in Kaduna yesterday ahead of this year’s health week themed “Road Map to Universal Health Coverage: the Journey So Far’, the state chairman and secretary of NMA, Dr. Shehu Abdulrahman and Dr. Tuko Moses respectively, lamented that when compared to their federal counterparts, doctors in the state earned between 50 to 60 percent.

“Recently, there was Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the state government where it pledged to correct the salary anomaly by January 2018 among other things. Unfortunately, the situation has remained same seven months into the year,” they said.

They appealed to the state government to fulfill its part of the agreements reached in the memorandum of understanding.

“It is generally accepted that human resource is a fundamental ingredient to attaining universal health coverage, thus, our sub-themes on human resources for health and healthcare legislation in Nigeria. Kaduna state is home to well over 2,000 licensed practicing physicians who work both in the public and private sectors.

“Out of this, only about 12 percent are in the employment of the state government; hence all efforts at attaining universal health coverage must be put into consideration. There must be readiness to collaborate with the private sector which has the largest group of physicians in the state and which also penetrates the communities most,” they added.