Anambra State Doctors Issue Seven-Day Ultimatum To Obiano On Poor Salaries

The Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Amaku-Awka has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Anambra Government for payment of enhanced salaries to its members.

Chukwudi Okani, Chairman of the association, gave the warning in Awka on Wednesday when addressing journalists, after an emergency meeting of the association.

The chairman said that the association would commence an indefinite strike should the government fail to heed the call.

Okani, flanked by some members of his association, expressed dismay that salaries received by medical consultants at Amaku were lower than salaries received by House officers in Federal Medical Centres across the South-East zone.

Okani further said that the seven-day ultimatum given was due to the inability of the state to implement the agreement it reached with the association after the suspension of the July 8, 2019 strike.

He regretted that since the suspension of the strike, the committee formed and inaugurated by Governor Willie Obiano to investigate and submit its findings and recommendations to the government within one month, had not submitted its report.

The immediate past chairman of the association, Amaechi Nwachukwu, who also spoke at the briefing, urged the governor to intervene on the matter to avert possible collapse of services at the hospital.

He said medical consultants are in charge of patients in the teaching hospitals and if they should embark on an indefinite strike, services will be seriously disrupted and people are bound to suffer.

The former chairman cleared the air saying that members were not asking for an increase in salaries, but merely for the payment of salaries paid consultants in other hospitals.