The Chairman of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Gombe State branch, Dr. Kefas Zawaya, says doctors collect N5,000 as hazard allowance monthly.
Zawaya disclosed this recently in an interview, adding that the doctor’s oath or pledge says “you must be alive first to take care of a patient”.
He said although the Association will not wait for emergencies caused by pandemic to talk about a raise.
He bemoaned the fact that some fields that are not exposed to risks as medics have bargained better for themselves.
Zawaya noted that the Association will ensure a suitable time to talk about a possible raise.
“We don’t wait for situations like this to start talking about hazard allowance. I won’t encourage my colleagues to talk about hazard allowance now. If we are facing emergencies, we should face it and after that, we can think about engagements with the government. Any health worker you see around collects just N5,000 monthly as hazard allowance. Some have bargained better for themselves better than what we receive.
“Some of what we feel should be available are meant to protect health workers from being infected with contagious diseases. Protection is important because for every patient that will die of any of the disease, many health workers are exposed to the risk. In most cases, two to three health workers will follow.
“The availability of gear to protect health workers from being infected with contagious diseases is very important. You need to be alive to be able to talk about salary, he said.
While urging government at both state and national levels to take the welfare of doctors and other health caregivers seriously, to avert incessant shutdown resulting from industrial disharmony he added,
“If a doctor is not in the right frame of mind to manage you, you are in for trouble. Even though now we use physician’s pledge and not oath, the same oath says the physician should be taken care of. No one talks about the health of the doctor. The pledge is saying you must be alive first to take care of a patient. The same doctors you accused of going on strike because you didn’t pay them for four months also goes to buy things in the market. And the moment traders realise you are a doctor, you will be made to pay more for the goods because they assume that doctors have lots of money.”
