The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD),
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter, have
commended the Minister of FCT, Muhammad
Bello, for paying the backlog of doctors’ salary
arrears.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Saturday, Dr Roland
Aigbovo, the President of the association, said
that the action of the minister was commendable
as he had kept to his promise.
Aigbovo however used the opportunity to appeal
to the minister to also remember the stagnation
of doctors who have long been due for promotion
but were yet to be promoted.
He stressed that some doctors have been
stagnated for over three years, while others due
for promotion have remained on the same level for
two years.
He added that some of the promotions that had
been done were done wrongly as some of the
doctors were promoted to the same level that
they were.
Aigbovo explained that some doctors were
wrongly placed and the wrong placement was
corrected and they were skipped and placed on
the next level, only to now also be promoted to
the same level that they were skipped to.
“They were promoted to the same grade level
they were skipped to.
“For example, a doctor on grade level 12 was
skipped to grade level 13 by correction of the
error and was then again promoted to grade level
13.
“The arrears paid were for skipping, which is the
correction of the wrong placement,†he noted.
On funding for public hospitals, the ARD president
appealed to the minister to budget for each
hospital according to their needs and to separate
the budgets of each individual hospital.
“We also appeal to the minister to make provision
of each hospital to have their budget and not a
blanket budget because every hospital has
different running cost,†he said.
He appealed for more training for resident and
non-resident doctors as well as for other
departments in the hospitals.
“Presently, only four departments are involved in
residency training which includes family medicine,
obstetrics and gynaecology, surgery and
ophthalmology.
“We want more departments including internal
medicine, paediatric, radiology and psychiatry to
enjoy similar training,†he urged.
Source:
guardian.ng/news/fct-doctors-hail-fg-for-
paying-arrears-appeals-for-budget-review/
