•Writes President Buhari, Says Recommendations
Full Of Bias
The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and
Assembly of Healthcare Professional Association (AHPA) in a petition to
President Muhammadu Buhari urged the Federal Government to withdraw the Report
of the 2014 Presidential Committee of Exper
The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and
Assembly of Healthcare Professional Association (AHPA), a body that constitutes
about 95 percent of the workforce in the health sector, has rejected the report
of the Yayale Ahmed Presidential Committee of Experts on Professional
Relationships in the Public Health Sector submitted to former President
Goodluck Jonathan in December 2014.
JOHESU and AHPA in a letter to President Muhammadu
Buhari said it was rejecting the report because the Nigerian Medical
Association (NMA) infiltrated the Secretariat of the Committee through the
instrumentality of its privileged members in high places in government.
The letter read, “Your Excellency, we the under listed stakeholders in health
find it necessary to inform the Federal Government that we reject outright the
very biased and one-sided Yayale Ahmed Presidential Committee of Experts on
Professional Relationships in the Public Health Sector in both public and
professional interests.
“From all intents and purposes, the report only
seeks to further marginalise our members and compromises the future of
generations of our members who would be permanently made subservient to their
contemporaries in medicine.
“ We strongly demand this report which is not in
tune with national development and interest be immediately withdrawn for the
public good and the future of the Health Sector as it is certainly not a
positive reference point in the quest for international best practices,” it
said.
The rejection letter was jointly signed by Com.
(Dr.) G.C. Okara, President AHPA; Com. Christ Ani, National President, NASU;
Com. Peters Adeyemi, General Secretary, NASU; Com. (Dr.) Ogbonna O.C., National
President, NUAHP; Com. Obisesan O.A., General Secretary, NUAHP; and Com. (Dr.)
B.A. Akintola, President, SSAUTHRIAI.
Others who signed the letter are Com. Akinade
M.O., General Secretary, SSAUTHRIAI; Com. Adeniji A.A., National President, NANNM; Com. Shettima Thomas A.,
Secretary-General, NANNM; Com. Biobelemoye Joy Josiah, National President,
MHWUN; and Com. Silas G. Adamu, Secretary-General, MHWUN.
“After a very critical evaluation of the Yayale
Ahmed Presidential Committee of Experts on Professional Relationships in the
Public Health Sector (YAPCEPRPH) report, we wish to draw your attention to our
intendment to continue to dissociate our respective organisations from the less
than credible posturing of the committee report on fundamental practice
issues,” the letter further read.
Such issues include establishment of the office of
Chief Medical Adviser to the President; Creation of a National Healthcare
Commission; Matters arising from Teaching Hospital Act; Headship of Teaching
Hospitals and Appointment of CMAC; Appointment of Deputy CMAC.
Others are, Consultancy Cadre for Eligible Health
Professionals; Composition of Boards of Management for Federal Health
Institutions and Opposition to Appointment of Other Health Professionals As
Directors in Federal Health Institutions
The rest are, establishment of Post-Graduate
Colleges for ‘Allied Health Professionals’ and Obvious Bias Against Health
Professionals other than Doctors Especially in the Reflected Areas.
Other areas of their discontentment are the
position of the panel on Pharm D and O.D. Programmes, withdrawal of Central
Bank of Nigeria Circular authorising MLSCN to approve a licence for the
importation of IVDs and poor hazard, call-duty and related allowances to health
professionals.
On the establishment of the office of Chief
Medical Adviser to the President, the body said one of the most nauseating
recommendations of the Yayale Ahmed Presidential Committee was the
establishment of an unnecessary office of Chief of Medical Adviser to Mr
President. It said that the functions of the office confirm that the
recommendation is only a shortcut to bring back to life the concept of
Surgeon-General as demanded by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
It said the committee found it necessary to cite
experiences in climes where doctors have a monopoly of some public health
initiatives but conveniently and cleverly avoided the United States of America
experience of the Surgeon-General, which is open to all health professionals.
JOHESU/AHPA drew the attention of Mr. President to
the sixth National Assembly and the 2014 National Conference whose legislative
templates have all rejected the concept of Surgeon-General or any of its
epitome.
“For the umpteenth time, we restate with necessary
emphasis that a country whose public sector wage profile had increased by a
whopping 100 percent from N890 billion to N1.83 trillion in five-year period
between 2009 and 2014 should not be contemplating setting up fresh
bureaucracies especially when it is unnecessary to satisfy ego trips,” it said.
JOHESU/AHPA also criticised the creation of a
National Healthcare Commission to replace professional regulatory agencies and
to regulate tertiary health facilities. It noted that the Presidential
Committee proposed a template for the age-long desire of the Nigerian Medical
Association (NMA) and its appendages to have a shortcut to regulate and control
all the cadres of health professions in Nigeria.
“Your Excellency, the recently approved National
Health Act is acceptable to JOHESU and Assembly of Healthcare Professional
Association (AHPA) only when the necessary safeguard to protect the autonomy of
all health professions is inculcated into Section 1(1) of the National Health
Act.
“That safeguard is the clause that declares that
regulation of health services in Section 1(1) of the new Health Act is without
prejudice to existing health laws. We find it expedient to lament very loudly
that this particular recommendation is clearly out of line and a design to
institutionalise confusion. In terms of logistics, how can one Commission as
proposed take over the functions of 15 different professional regulatory
councils as well as regulate the activities of 55 Federal Health Institutions
as currently constituted?”
It described as irrational logic, the committee’s
ill-conceived concept of a Healthcare Commission to replace 15 regulatory
agencies that are products of valid Acts of Parliament as Section 315 of the
Constitution conveys validity on those laws that were creations of the
military.
On matters arising from Teaching Hospital Act, the
body also said the Committee did not reckon with holistic appraisals of the
contentious matters under the Act.
It said that existing legislation on Headship of Teaching Hospitals
provide that medically qualified persons can be appointed as Heads of Federal
Health institutions in Nigeria.
“Over time the Federal Government in conjunction
with Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has interpreted this to imply that only
Doctors meet this eligibility clause. Rather craftily, the Yayale Ahmed
Presidential Committee relied on the ancient perception known to only our clime
that doctors are the sole cadre of staff who are medically qualified and so
should continue to head Federal Health Institutions. There are a number of
suits where stakeholders are currently seeking an interpretation of who is
medically qualified. While awaiting the outcome of these suits including those
on appeal, we can safely inform the Federal Government that it is less than
fashionable to legislate that a doctor heads a hospital in the global arena,”
it added.
It contended that the condition precedent to be
CEO, therefore, must revolve around interested persons being seasoned
administrators or managers of cognate experience.
On the appointment of Chairman, Medical Advisory
Committee (CMAC), it said there was a need to open borders of restriction
associated with the responsibility to any of the staff (HOD level) in the clinical
services department, which includes Pharmacy, Nursing, Medical Laboratory
Sciences, Radiography, Physiotherapy and others.
For the appointment of Deputy Chairman, Medical
Advisory Committee (D-CMAC), it said the Yayale Ahmed Presidential Committee, unfortunately,
sees no reason why doctors cannot continue to grab unilaterally all privileges
in health care contrary to evolving norms in the global arena.
For Consultancy Cadre for eligible health
professionals, it said the only reference to it were admonitions to invoke the
spirit of the NICN judgment which gave the Federal Ministry of Health powers to
approve the cadre. It wondered why the Federal Ministry of Health has not come
up with necessary circular prescribing conditionalities to appoint new eligible
health professionals since the judgment re-instated existing consultant in the
various professional cadres.
On composition of boards for Federal Health
Institutions, the body said the cosmetic recommendation of increasing the
number of health professionals on the Board of Management of Federal Health
Institutions does not fundamentally redress the lopsidedness in board
composition as the adjustment just improves the ratio of doctors to other
professionals on the board from ratio 1:8 to 1:3 which is still inequitable. It
said the way forward is to allow for an amendment of the Teaching Hospital Act
to redress permanently the issues in public interest.
Among other issues, JOHESU/AHPA said, “From the
major highlights, we have documented in this memo Your Excellency, the Yayale
Ahmed Presidential Committee has failed to enlist our confidence in major areas
of its report.”
