Doctors vow to resist pay cut, lament payroll fraud

The National Association of Resident Doctors has urged the Federal Government to curb the financial leakages in federal teaching hospitals.
The resident doctors on Friday urged the government to enrol doctors on the Integrated Personnel Payroll System before October 30.
They vowed to resist pay cut arising from improper grading and placement of doctors currently affecting many hospitals in the country.

The Public Relations Officer, NARD, Dr. Ugoeze Asinobi, said in Yenagoa that the association took the resolution among others at an extraordinary National Executive Meeting in Abuja on Sunday.
According to him, the officials at various federal teaching hospitals deliberately manipulate the grading and step system to short-pay doctors and pocket the cumulative differentials running into millions of naira.
Asinobi said the inappropriate placement of doctors on grades and scale was adversely affecting doctors in twelve federal hospitals across the country.
He noted that the development had compelled doctors in affected hospitals to go on strike thereby obstructing industrial harmony, worsening health indices and needless loss of lives.
The spokesman, therefore, advised the Federal Government to ensure that full remuneration of doctors were captured in the 2017 budget to forestall the breach of industrial harmony in the health sector in the coming year.
Asinobi said, “Any attempt to truncate full emolument of our members will be strongly resisted and will lead to immediate and total nationwide breakdown of industrial relations.
“The chief executives of the 12 affected hospitals where the pay cuts occasioned by the inappropriate placement of doctors should immediately be called to order to avoid worsening the frosty industrial relations.
“All institutions currently on strike as a result of non-implementation of full salaries with lateral conversion have the full backing of NARD and are encouraged to be steadfast.
“They should activate all mechanisms within the ambits of the law to press home their agitations and ensure that their demands are met.”
He said NARD faulted the invocation of ‘no work, no pay rule’ and rejectd it entirely, noting that its members were punished for the ineptitude of the Chief Executives of the affected hospitals and health ministry officials.