Doctors in Ondo State have threatened to go on strike if the state government refuses to fulfil its promise to review their hazard allowance.

The Ondo state chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association issued the threat on Monday at their 2023 Physicians’ Week, held in Akure.

Chairman of the state NMA, Dr Omosehin Adeyemi-Osowe, lamented that doctors practising in the government-owned hospitals in the state were being paid a sum of N5,000 as hazard allowance for such a long time, even after the state government had approved the upward review of the allowance but not implementing it.

Mr Adeyemi-Osowe revealed that the state government had promised to pay it this week, but warned that his members are ready to down tools if the reviewed allowance is not implemented and paid before Friday.

He said,” We have many challenges in Ondo NMA, one of them is that we lack personnel. Recently we heard in the news that over 1,000 health workers would be employed by the state government. We are still waiting for the recruitment exercise to commence. Another challenge is our allowances, we have had a review recently, and before that review, the hazard allowance has been reviewed upward, before the review of that hazard allowance what we receive as doctors is N5,000.

“This has been reviewed by the Federal Government but up till this moment, Ondo State has not implemented it, but we know that it has been approved. We were promised that there would be implementation in Ondo State, but up till this moment we’re yet to perceive the implementation. As of last Friday, the government through the Permanent Secretary on establishment promised that on or before the end of tomorrow (Wednesday) a circular would be out, we are waiting,” he added.

Decrying the ‘japa’ syndrome of its doctors in the state, the NMA boss in the state, called for an improvement of the welfare of the remaining health workers in the state to curb the trend.

He said, “In Ondo State today, doctors, pharmacists and others are leaving the country for advanced country, we cannot stop them, they have the human right to migrate, but what are those things making them migrate, these are the things we have discussed with the government, we need competitive allowances and salaries as compared to other countries even if we come locally, as compared to other states, these we are not getting, but we believe it would come.

“I want to tell the government that at the end of this week, and we do not have that circular, well, it would not be bad for Ondo State Nigeria Medical Association of doctors to go on strike at the end of this week if we do not have the circular for the implementation of the hazard allowance in Ondo State, the federal workers have been enjoying this since last year, from December 2021, the Federal Government has cleared all the federal workers allowance, they have paid their workers up till today,” he noted.

Buttressing the state chairman’s statement, the national president of the NMA, Dr Uche Ojinmah said, “We use this medium to humbly sound a note of warning to all and sundry to never try to run Nigerian doctors down in any way but to always follow due process if aggrieved or in discharging their responsibilities. If anyone has any case against a doctor practising in Nigeria, he should channel such to the Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria for appropriate response being the body statutorily saddled with such responsibility.

“The NMA hereby express her displeasure at the recent media trial of some healthcare workers by the Minister of Women Affairs. We believe that such behaviour is infra dig for one that occupies such a lofty office,” the NMA president stated.