Prioritise Service- Rev. Eyoanwan Otu to Medical Doctors
Emmanuel Alfred
Medical Doctors in Cross River State have been called upon to consider their service to humanity as a priority above all else in a bid to delivering quality health service.
This was made known by the Wife of the Cross River State Governor, Her Excellency, Rev. Eyoanwan Bassey Otu, while receiving a delegation of the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners, Cross River State Branch.
She maintained that the country can be built if everyone plays their part without recourse to monetary and pecuniary gains, even as she expressed displeasure at the rate with which professionals are leaving the state in search of so-called greener pastures.
Rev. Otu expressed optimism that things will improve for the better as she enjoined all medical workers and doctors to hold sacred their oaths.
The Special Adviser, Programme, Project and Event, Dr. Inyang Asibong, commended the doctors for their hard work and considerations, informing that the issue of doctors’ renumeration has been ongoing and the financial constraints plaguing the State has not been helped in resolving the issue.
She also said that with the state of renumeration, it is difficult to have brain gain as against brain drain that has left the system without enough doctors assuring them that once the renumeration is sorted, things will fall in place.
The State Chairman, Dr. Enya Ideba, informed that the association is an affiliate of the Nigeria Medical Association and made up of doctors in the State employ.
He expressed displeasure at the welfare of doctors in the State, noting that they are the least paid in the country, also adding that the welfare of doctor affects the sustainability of the health sector in the State.
According to Dr. Ideba, the lack of manpower, and the non-implementation of the 100% Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) for doctors and dearth of infrastructure in Government hospitals calls for concerns and urgent intervention whilst passionately appealing for the State Government to facilitate the release of their colleague, Dr. Ekanem Ephraim, a Medical Practitioner with the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), who has been in abduction.
He appealed for the public health sector to be urgently looked into to avoid a total collapse.
