MDCN pays insurance claims to dead doctors’ families

By Moses Emorinken, Abuja

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has begun the payment of insurance claims to families of some doctors who died  in service.

The Council, however, said there is an urgent need for Directors of Medical Services in the states and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to furnish it with a detailed compilation of doctors who died to stop overreliance on newspaper publications to be aware of such cases.

The Registrar and Chief Executive of MDCN, Dr. Tajudeen Sanusi, made this known this in Abuja, during the presentation of cheques to the families of dead doctors.

In attendance were NMA President, Prof. Innocent Ujah and Executive Vice Chairman of Dykes Insurance Brokers Limited, Dau Kenny Tekenah.

The deceased doctors were Patience Selumun Tsavande of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi; Oluwamayowa Nofisat Alaka of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, and Stephen Urueye of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba.

“The insurance for doctors has been there in our subsidiary legislation, that is, the code of medical ethics. The latest is 2007 and stipulates that every registered practitioner must have what we call constitutional indemnity. We have not been able to enforce it because of the absence of the enabling law. The enabling law was signed into law in 2014. The execution started in 2016. We have been dragged severally before the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and Other-Related Offences Commission). People were accusing us of selective implementation. We said well, when you have a law like this, you start with the younger colleagues. As at the time they were coming in, we enforce it. That was what happened.

“For most of these cases, we were not informed directly. We just read in the papers and we felt we owed them that responsibility, since they have that insurance. The cheques had been ready before Covid-19 came up. But because of the exigencies of duties, we have not been able. And because of that, the cheques got stalled and we had to return them to the broker for revalidation. For doctors that have their properties registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme, this is part of the requirements to be fulfilled before they can be accredited by the NHIS. After knowing about the cases from newspapers, we try to link up with the institutions where these doctors practice, and check the records.’’