At the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State, there has been concern over unpaid salaries of resident doctors. For more than one week after the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) called off its national industrial action with members returning to work, the resident doctors at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, have not returned to work.
The resident doctors said they would not return to work until the hospital management paid the outstanding salaries of their colleagues who were employed under a local arrangement (Locum) and regularized their appointments. The Guardian reported that the affected medical doctors were owed two months’ salary arrears.
In 2021, the hospital management, concerned about the shortage of medical personnel, hired over 160 doctors with the promise of regularizing them into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) within six months.
The doctors have been working for the past two years without being made permanent employees, and they do not know when this will happen. This has led to a strike by the resident doctors under the aegis of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), UNTH, Enugu Chapter, which has grounded medical activities at the hospital.
President of the Association, Dr. Chinazom Ekwueme, complained about the predicament of her colleagues, saying that it was unacceptable and pitiable and it calls for concern. She expressed worry over the prolonged locum tag on the over 160 resident doctors, urging the management to urgently resolve the issues.
She said: “Imagine as a doctor, you were employed and over two years you move from being a registrar to being a senior registrar and on your way to becoming a consultant, yet you are still a contract staff, you are not entitled to anything, you are not entitled to Medical Residency Training Fund, you are not entitled to pension deductions. It is unacceptable that medical doctors will be casualized.
“The management keeps telling us there is an embargo on employment, that they can’t get a waiver, but here in our South-East, we all know that other centers surrounding us have employed their locum staff.
“So, we don’t know why it has been an issue for the past two years. The last time UNTH was employed was in 2021, and since then, we have not gotten another employment; as at that 2021, we had locum doctors but they were not employed, instead, fresh people were employed.”
“The affected doctors are borrowing from colleagues, from corps members who are doctors and all that. It is sad.
“We have the opportunity to join the ‘japa syndrome’ but we said no, yet we are being treated in this manner. It is very unacceptable. In UNTH, we are overburdened,” she lamented.
When they addressed reporters a few days ago, one of the affected doctors, Dr Nwosu Ivan, of the Surgery Department, had said that the suffering of their members was indescribable.
“The issue about owing locum doctors two months of salary in UNTH is very pathetic and I don’t wish that to even my enemies. I want to call on all men of goodwill, our consultants, our CMD, and concerned citizens to know that doctors in UNTH are suffering.
“We know the price of fuel since fuel subsidy was removed, we know the effect on our economy, our purse, the prices of goods have risen to high, the cost of medical treatment for doctors.
“You can imagine the effect on doctors who have not been paid their salary; many colleagues of ours have been trekking to work, that is a fact because they have to park their vehicles; many of them take public transport whereby they spend thousands of naira each day and you see a lot of them showing signs of depression because of pressure from the society.
“Many of the locum doctors are sick but can’t afford their hospital bills; these are professionals, these are civil servants, these are supposed to be the middle class of the society, but they can’t afford necessities because they are being owed.
“The work pressure is much on the doctors; one person will run a whole clinic or a whole department for three months, which means being on call for 90 days and these people are meant to do this on an empty stomach, they come to work, no food, no money to buy food.
“Doctors are now patronizing loan apps to feed their families, it is very shameful. These workers have committed no crime; their mates are abroad but they decided to stay back; we are not asking for much; salary is basic,” Nwosu stated.
Dr. Christian Omeje of the Department of Child Dental Health said it was heartbreaking that his colleagues had been working as temporary resident doctors for the past two years.
“When we came into the program, we thought that this locum nomenclature would be erased from our appointment letters within two to three or highest six months and that we would become permanent staff.
“Since I entered into the medical program I never heard of locum residency. Residency is a time-bound program, so adding a locum to it is making it worse.
“It has had of serious psychological effect on us, answering that word locum has dampened our spirit and it has affected us. We are also working as doctors and this situation is affecting the quality of attention we give to our patients”, he stated.
Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Obinna Onodugo, however, insisted that the doctors have not been regularized because the embargo on employment had not been lifted, even as he blamed the federal government for their inability to receive their pay.
“The option is for them to wait for FG to grant us the waiver we have since requested, for them to be made permanent staff. It’s not me that will grant them a waiver, neither do I have the right to do so without the mandate from those who gave me a job to do for them.
“We have been to Abuja severally to the relevant agencies handling these matters. I have offered to take some of the Resident Doctors to Abuja to go and see for themselves, but they turned it down. What else am I supposed to do?”, Onodugo queried.
Onodugo acknowledged that the situation at the hospital was affecting its smooth operations and said that efforts were being made to address the doctors’ concerns.