OSUN GOVERNMENT WANTS US DEAD!!!

PRESS RELEASE BY THE ASSOCIATION OF RESIDENT DOCTORS, LAUTECH TEACHING HOSPITAL, OSOGBO ON MONDAY, 1ST MAY 2017 AT THE ARD SECRETARIAT.


Preamble

The Association of Resident Doctors is the umbrella association of all medical doctors below the cadre of consultants in LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo.
One of the objectives of the association is to provide appreciable welfare and palpable support system to her members, who labour day and night to sustain the health care delivery system in the state.
At the same time, the Association is also poised towards ensuring that people of Osun State have access to standard health care services as obtainable in other teaching hospitals in the country.
LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, was established by the Decree of Military Government of the old Oyo State in 1991.
The official Government Gazette that established the Teaching Hospital states clearly that it will operate at per (in areas of health care services provision and remuneration of her staffs)with other teaching hospitals in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.


It is on these important premises that the ARD LAUTECH OSOGBO has continuously reiterated that doctors must earn their salaries to function effectively.
The Association has maintained that the payment of emoluments of essential services providers should not therefore be optional since it will be preposterous to put the lives of the masses in the hands of unpaid doctors - this is likened to putting one's hands in the fire and expecting not to burn the hands!

Issues of Poor infrastructures.

The Association wishes to bring to the notice of the public that facilities in the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo for health care delivery have degenerated rapidly over years. It is an irony that the government that has demonstrated unprecendented bias towards infrastructural development, even though at the expense of worker's welfare, has neglected the health sector. Our people have been condemned to death by this singular act of the government.

Poor Remuneration.

At present, resident doctors in LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo are the lowest paid doctors, throughout the entire Federal Republic of Nigeria.
A resident doctor in LTH, Osogbo earns one fourth of the salary of his colleagues in other teaching hospitals - this can easily be verified. Not only this, doctors remain the only set of workers among all staffs within the hospital with this disturbing statistics.

How did we get here?

In 2015, the governor of Osun State and other labour unions (strategically leaving doctors out) agreed to a fractionalization of their salaries to half of original earnings. The doctors in the state were not part of this agreement and they would never be as this is alien to labour law. We are being owed salaries from july, 2015 till date, including months of unpaid salaries during the period of suspension of services in demanding for our rightful wage. Our doctors toil day and night trying to safeguard the health of the people at the expense of their families. Our children do not see us at home because of tight working hours and call duties. Yet we have nothing to show than fractionalized, truncated, bastardized and FULLY TAXED QUARTER SALARIES!

Sometimes last year, we secured a commitment (MOU) from government that the arrears of the fractionalised salaries would be paid once the economy improves. It is thus amazing that despite several funds (excess crude oil, paris club refund etc.) received into the coffers of the state, this promise is yet to be fulfilled.
Yet, members of the Association had continued to work under this atmosphere of hardship. This is certainly demoralising and sickening that doctors can be subjected to this kind of treatment at this age and time. It is indeed a shame! Our doctors have continued to migrate from the state to neighbouring states and outside the country since this started.
This has left the unsuspecting populace to poor and inefficient health care. Yet our people have remained silent.

We have met officials of Osun State government and high-ranking politicians on several fora with no favourable outcome.

iii. Misplaced Priorities

Careful observations in the state have revealed that, workers' salaries is at the bottom of the government's scale of prefrence. Do we have to kill people to ensure actualisation of self-driven projects?

Conclusion

The entire members of the association of resident Doctors plead with the entire people of Osun State to lend their voice of appeal to the government of Osun State to stop the deliberate harm to doctors and at the same time secure their health (populace).
Though the government wants us dead; we won’t commit suicide, we deserve a better life!!

Long Live ARD, LTH OSOGBO!
Long Live Osun NMA!
Long Live Osun State!


Credit :
Lautech mouthpiece
( LMP )