Allied health professionals lament marginalisation

Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) has called for a stakeholders’ summit among health professionals in the country to address the alleged marginalisation and favouritism among workers in the nation’s health sector. Speaking at a book launch and investiture programme of the union in Ilorin at the weekend, the National President of NUAHP, Dr. […]

Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) has called for a stakeholders’ summit among health professionals in the country to address the alleged marginalisation and favouritism among workers in the nation’s health sector.
Speaking at a book launch and investiture programme of the union in Ilorin at the weekend, the National President of NUAHP, Dr. Obinna Ogbonna, said the summit was important to forestall frequent strikes by health workers with untold effect on the populace.
Ogbonna, who blamed the federal government for discriminatory treatment between members of medical and dental professionals and their counterparts in the allied medical sector, added that allied health workers are not strike mongers.
He said when they go to government to do collective bargaining, the implementation of the agreements are jettisoned and even court judgments like the skipping of their members from CONHEIS 9 to 11 in the National Industrial Court judgment of July 23, 2013.
“People should know that we are not insensitive to the plight of the patients and that we are not strike mongers. It is because of the injustice meted out to us. That is why you are having so many strikes. For instance we have eight directorates in the Federal Ministry of Health. It is only one that is meant for other health care professionals,” he said.
Dr. Ogbonna also  called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ban medical tourism among Nigerians particularly among  public office holders saying it would bring about desired attention to problems in the country’s health sector.