Musa Pam 
The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) has stated that it has observed with grave concern, the failure of the Federal Government to fully harmonise and circularize the shortfall in salaries/income loss by clinical lecturers (Honorary Consultants occasioned by non-payment of their salary with CONMESS.
MDCAN stated this in a communique issued at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting with the theme, “Health as a Sustainable Development Goal in Nigeria: Celebrating our Success and Strategizing for the Future”.
The communique was jointly signed by the association President Prof. Aminu Mohammad and Secretary Prof. Daiyabu Ibrahim a copy was made available to newsmen in Jos.
According to the Medical and Dental doctors, they also observed the desire of the Federal Government to double the quotas of Medical Schools to train more doctors but lamented that it is yet to make available commensurate investment in the human resources and infrastructure to guarantee effective and qualitative medical training in order to achieve the objective of the policy
The association also explained that Government is yet to accede to their calls for the increase and harmonization of retirement age for hospital consultants and other healthcare workers, despite the crippling effects of the healthcare workforce migration, leading to excess workload and burnout in the system
“We urged the Federal Government to address the lingering demand for universal applicability of CONMESS to all doctors across different Government establishments.
The communique further stressed ” We appeal to the National Salary Income and Wages Commission (NSICWC) to circularize the MoU reached with MDCAN in January 2024. Urgent release of a circular for the increment/harmonization in retirement age to 70 years for hospital consultants and 65 years for other healthcare workers as the delay is no longer acceptable .”
According to them, the human capital and infrastructural gaps deficit should be urgently addressed by the Federal and State governments before implementing the doubling of admission quotas into Medical Dental Schools.
MDCAN also want state governments to domesticate the CONMESS Salary structure for the payment of Medical and Dental doctors in their respective state services, including those teaching Medical students adding that this will mitigate the “Internal Japa Syndrome” that is rampant in the states in Nigeria.
” We call on other state governments to toe the line of Abia state Government by approving increase increase in retirement age for Medical Doctors and other healthcare workers”, the communique added.
