The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has advocated for the establishment of a minimum benchmark for doctors working in both public and private hospitals and organisations, to ensure equitable remuneration in the country.
This was contained in a communique signed by President of the NMA, Prof. Bala Audu and Secretary General, Benjamin Egbo, at the end of its 3rd National Health Summit with the theme, “Healthcare Delivery in Nigeria, Translating Policies into Impact,” and the December 2024 NationalExecutive Council (NEC) meeting of the Association.
Delivering the communique to newsmen on Saturday in Abuja, the NMA President Prof. Bala Audu explained that besides addressing the high migration of doctors to other countries, equitable remuneration would also solve the issue of internal migration, where doctors clamour to work at the federal hospitals and organisations, rather than at state and local government health facilities and organisations.
Audu who clarified that hospitals and organisations who want to pay beyond the minimum benchmark were free to do so, maintained that having a benchmark in doctors’ remuneration would bring stability to the health sector.
He said: “NEC resolved to advocate for the establishment of a minimum benchmark for doctors’ salaries nationwide. This would assure equitable remuneration, enhance job satisfaction, and foster workforce stability for both public and private health sectors.
“A minimum remuneration benchmark that you cannot go below, whether the individual is employed in the public sector or in the private sector and even in the public sector, whether the individual is employed by federal, state, or local government.
“Even within those sectors, whether the individual is employed in a primarily health sector like hospitals or in other departments and agencies that require the services of a doctor, such as university lecturers who are doctors, such as customs services who employ doctors, such as security agencies who employ doctors, everyone must comply with that minimum benchmark.
“This will produce stability. While it will prevent japa out of the country, it will also prevent what is referred to as the internal brain drain, where doctors don’t want to serve in local governments because the pay package is not as good as in state governments where some doctors leave state governments to go and work in federal hospitals, when they are actually needed more in those state hospitals.
“So it will prevent those kinds of movements within the system. However, the minimum benchmark is only a minimum. People can pay beyond that minimum benchmark.”
NMA NEC also resolved to engage the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and other relevant authorities to promote the welfare of
doctors, and to drive advocacy for the implementation of health policies at the subnational level.
While resolving to ensure strategic engagement and partnership with the Nigerian Health Sector Renewal and Investment Initiative and the sector-wide approach in line with its four pillars, NEC also resolved that the Association would work closely with state branches to develop mechanisms that enhance doctors’ welfare, improve security, and provide comprehensive health insurance coverage for all doctors.
In addition, “NEC resolved to explore the possibility of partnerships and signing memoranda of understanding with doctors in the diaspora to deepen collaboration and exchange via partnership with Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission and other related local and international groups.
“NEC resolved to strengthen partnerships with national and state legislative assemblies to drive the full implementation of the National Health Act. These collaborations would focus on enhancing innovative financing, oversight functions, and the formulations and review of laws and policies necessary in improving healthcare delivery.”
On the implications of the high cost of medication on the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the country, the NMA President urged the Federal Government to expand insurance health coverage to the generality of Nigerians to reduce out-of-pocket expenses.
“The whole essence of Universal Health Coverage is two prongs; the first prong is to ensure all Nigerians who need health care are able to access the best quality patient-centred and respectable care on the one hand. The second part is that they are able to access that care without undue financial difficulties.
“The way to mitigate this is to ensure that on the one arm standard care is provided across any facility. That is to say, any facility that is going to provide health care in this country must be certified to provide that standard level of care for which that facility is registered Which means, there must be a standard in terms of quality of care that is provided at primary level, at secondary level, and at tertiary level.
“It also means that we must mitigate and reduce out-of-pocket expenses by ensuring that insurance health coverage is spread across all Nigerians and is also at a premium that is affordable to Nigerians.”
