Doctors at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State, have rejected the reappointment of the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Liasu Ahmed, on the grounds that he is due for retirement.
The doctors, under the auspices of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, FMC Owo chapter, described Ahmed’s reappointment as a procedural flaw.
Ahmed was recently reappointed by the Federal Government for another four years.
Speaking on the development, on Monday, the Chairman of the MDCAN at the hospital, Dr Samuel Faturoti, said the MD would be clocking the official age of retirement by July and he was supposed to have proceeded on terminal leave of three months.
But in a reaction, Ahmed said his reappointment followed due process, explaining that a six-man panel that was sent to the hospital by the Federal Government met all heads of departments and assessed his performance.
According to him, the panel later recommended him for reappointment and alleged that one of his antagonists had the ambition of being in his position.
He said, “It is a political appointment and that is why the salary I have been collecting for the past four years is on the Consolidated Salary Scale. We will continue to appeal to them, though I know they have ambition.
“The peace we have been enjoying is paramount and that has brought a lot of development here. The majority of workers are happy about it except the very few people who are saying they are the medical directors in waiting. There is no problem. We will continue to discuss with them and ensure that we do not lose our peace,”
However, the MDCAN chairman harped on the fact that Ahmed had served for two years and four months in an acting capacity and by April 2022, he would have served for four years as the substantive medical director.
Faturoti stated, “The medical director has continually boasted that the new term renewal was secondary to a performance evaluation carried out by the Federal Ministry of Health sometime last year.
“It is pertinent to know that none of the stakeholders in the hospital, including heads of departments, union leaders, various hospital committees’ chairperson and others, was aware of the visit for such an important function and indeed no circular was issued to that effect.
“In other words, the panel’s visit was deliberately shrouded in secrecy and manipulated to suit the whims and caprices of the outgoing medical director.”
Faturoti also accused the MD of not providing basic and vital consumables and drugs for the hospital, saying Ahmed showed no empathy to health workers, who were recently attacked at the COVID-19 Isolation Ward.
He added that the 2019 promotion arrears of the hospital’s workers were yet to be paid, while nurses’ union allowance had been withheld.
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