The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammed Pate, has been asked to initiate engagements with stakeholders in the health sector to enable him to find lasting solutions to the problems in the sector.
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, the Acting Chairman of the Joint Health Workers Union, Dr Obinna Ogbonna, said it would be a good move for the new minister to have firsthand interaction with the leadership of the union.
JOHESU has been engaging the Federal Government on the improvement of the welfare of health workers across the country.
The union has also been demanding, among others, the immediate approval and implementation of the Technical Committee Report on Consolidated Health Salary Structure Adjustment by the Federal Government, the immediate payment of the omission and shortfall in the COVID-19 hazard/inducement allowances of affected health workers in federal health institutions, the recognition of support health workers in hospital facilities in the payment of the new hazard allowance; and the payment and inculcation of peculiar allowances to health workers under the aegis of JOHESU/AHPA.
The JOHESU boss said, “The first thing is that he (minister) is just coming in and needs to call for a stakeholders’ meeting. I’m sure he would have been given a brief by the permanent secretary and it will also be good for him to have a firsthand interaction with the union, so it is good for him to invite the leadership and he will understand and see that the solutions will be proffered. That will bring lasting peace to the sector. In governance, there is no vacuum.”
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