The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) yesterday urged the Federal Government to remove the Health Minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, for “poor performance” and failure to implement the report of the Presidential Committee on the Harmonisation of the sector.
Led by the Chairman of its Lagos State Chapter, Comrade Ibe Stephen, the workers staged a peaceful rally at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) secretariat in Lagos.
Stephen alleged that rather than implement the report, the minister decided to support the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to the detriment of other health workers.
He said Chukwu’s action was a “gross disobedience” to Mr. President, who set-up the committee to resolve lingering crises in the sector.
Stephen said: “He is insensitive to the poor health indices of the country. He has been opposing a fair, objective and masses-centred National Health Bill, which is why it has not been signed into law.”
He alleged that the minister has refused to allow a holistic review and input from other health professionals into the present Health Bill, which has passed through the second reading in the National Assembly.
Stephen said the rally is to inform the government that health workers across the country should be attended to and not only doctors.
He said: “We are asking for the immediate removal of Chukwu because whenever there is an issue that concerns all health professionals, he always takes sides with doctors. He does not consider other health workers, such as nurses, midwives, pharmacists, radiographers and laboratory scientists, among others.”
Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Health Professionals, Lagos chapter, Comrade Chris Ugboaja said medicine is a profession in health as pharmacy, radiography and other professions and should be treated as such, so that all health professionals can work together as a team.
Ugboaja said: “The doctors cannot do it all. Other professions also play major roles in the sector. Why is it that only the doctors seem to be relevant and others are not accorded their rightful place?
“We should be ruled by a health administrator and not a doctor as it is done in other parts of the world. This is because the health administrator will know how to treat all health workers equally.”
The National Vice-President, Association of Medical Labouratory Scientists of Nigeria, Toyosi Raheem, said people are not confident in the way health care services are handled in the country .
This, he said, was because the totality of professionals involved are not carried along on how it should be run.
Raheem said only five per cent of the health work in Nigeria is done by doctors, adding that the remaining 95 per cent is done by other health professionals.
