The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) has warned to go on strike after a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to meet its demands.
Following Tuesday’s virtually exceptional National Executive Council meeting, MDCAN declared its plans in a communique signed by its President, Dr. Victor Makanjuola, and Secretary-General, Dr. Yemi Raji.
The NEC expressed its displeasure over the government’s refusal to put into effect a deal on the upward review of CONMESS and the introduction of Accoutrement allowance, as announced in a circular that includes the percentage increase on the basic salary, as opposed to applying it to both the basic salaries and all allowances except Hazard allowance.
The communique read, “This error has resulted in the complete exclusion of the clinical lecturers (Honorary Consultants) from benefiting from the upward review. The commencement date for the new circular was agreed to be January 1, 2023, rather than June 1, 2023.
“We believe this error will be corrected without delay. The recent upward review of CONMESS did not take into consideration the consequences of the fuel subsidy removal and exponential inflation that has pervaded our socio-economic space in the past three months.
“Despite our association’s decision to keep faith with the engagement and negotiations with the National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission for more than two years regarding the correction of the shortfalls in remuneration for Clinical Lecturers (Honorary Consultants), the issue is yet to be conclusively addressed by the Federal Government,” it said.
The council also added that it had noticed that not all medical and dental professionals were subject to CONMESS, regardless of the government organizations they were employed by.
The Federal Ministry of Health’s proposal to raise the retirement age for medical and dental consultants and other health workers was rejected by the National Council on Establishment, demonstrating the government’s failure to recognize the severity of the effects of brain drain in the healthcare industry.
