The National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD), have decried the poor state of welfare for healthcare workers in the face of threatening hazardous and fatal diseases outbreaks such as Lassa fever and the coronavirus (now officially named COVID-19) in the country.

Doctors, nurses and other frontline healthcare workers, though sacrificing their health and time to treat and protect Nigerians, are more often than not, dangerously ill-equipped and economically dampened by government’s lack of will to prioritize their well-being.

The President of NARD, Dr. Aliyu Sokomba, who disclosed this during a press briefing on Thursday in Abuja, explained that the government has failed to implement the Group life assurance policy; a contract of insurance designed to provide for the payment of capital sum to the dependents of an employee who dies while in service.

According to him, “With the recent outbreaks in the country one would have thought that protecting the healthcare workers’ welfare and most importantly their well-being would be given the utmost attention to enable them carry out their job diligently, but this unfortunately is not the case.

“Even as Government makes provision for the Group life assurance policy a contract of insurance designed to provide for the payment of capital sum to the dependents of an employee who dies while in service, it has failed to implement it.

“This policy is supposed to be compulsory by virtue of the pension reform act 2014. Specifically section 4 sub-section 5 of the act requires employers to maintain life insurance policy or death-in service benefit scheme in favour of their employees.

“Six years after the enactment of the act, NARD has over these years, made concerted effort with the relevant agencies of government to ensure the lives of health care workers are properly insured – to no avail”.

“This allowance of N5,000, cannot afford a full course of ribavirin prophylaxis should any health care worker get exposed. And that is what we get today as hazard allowance. Even though no amount of allowance can ever suffice for the sacrifice of health and time, a modest proportion of basic salary as proposed over 5 years ago, is required to at least offer some degree of social protection from the job hazard.

“Recently, the National University Commission forwarded a circular to Vice Chancellors of Nigerian universities and the Registrar of the NPMCN on Postgraduate medical training, stating the requirement of a PhD as a prerequisite for career progression of Doctors teaching medical students. This requirement of a PhD is alien and antithetical to medical education and practice world over.

“We therefore join the Medical and Dental Consultant Association of Nigeria in calling the NUC and the employers to call NUC to order and withdraw the circular.

“We also wish to caution the NUC on its planned distortion of the residency training programme to be wary of the consequences as it relates to the residency training act, the funding of residency and the duration of the programme”.