NMA Can’t Stop Us From Recruiting New Doctors —LASG

The Lagos State Government says the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA cannot stop it from recruiting new doctors for its public hospitals, saying the body does not know what it is doing.

The government also debunked claims by the doctors that they were being over-taxed, saying that the Pay As You Earn, PAYE policy stipulates that the more you earn, the more you pay.

The Lagos State Chapter of the NMA, had on Wednesday warned doctors applying to work for Lagos State public hospitals to replace the striking doctors not to accept such appointment as NMA would compel the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN, to revoke the practising license of the doctors.

Reacting to this, Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris stated that the state chapter of NMA must have been aware of this state of affairs, and yet peddle the falsehood, apparently to create fears in the minds of the public about the possibility of the state government continuing to provide health services to the people of the state, despite the efforts of certain people to paralyse those services and expose the people to risk of unattended illness and even death.

“The whole exercise is a deliberate effort at cheap blackmail. It is a matter that should cause great concern to all doctors, and the public at large, that an association which is supposed to represent the best interests of the medical profession, and to push for their loftiest goals, such as the need to take the quality of outputs of Nigerian doctors to international standards, has become a platform for pursuing base interests and peddling disgraceful, unconscionable falsehood,” Idris said.

The commissioner urged doctors who had already applied to work for government and the general public to disregard the campaign of blackmail by the NMA, assuring that government would do everything within its power to ensure that there was no protracted disruption of health services in the state.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga