From Ameachi Prosper (The New Diplomat’s Delta Correspondent)
The recent accusation of corruption directed at Edo resident doctors by Governor Godwin Obaseki has sparked outrage among members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Edo State Hospital Management Board chapter.
The governor had lamented the level of corruption in the state’s healthcare system, describing it as a deliberate act to run down the system.
Obaseki said: “The level of corruption in the healthcare system in the state is alarming and unacceptable. W have drawn the line; it will no longer be business as usual. It’s left to you to either join us or take a bow honourably.”
Obaseki however, queried the modality for having just one doctor in Igarra, the headquarters of Akoko Edo Local Government Area of the state, and two in Auchi, while there are many doctors in Benin, doing nothing.
But the ARD has described as vexatious and unsubstantiated, the Governor’s comments against its members, particularly doctors employed by the state government on the allegation of corruption.
The ARD, in a statement signed by Dr. Osayande Edorisiagbon and Dr. Ovbiagele Uaboi, President and Secretary-General respectively, after an emergency meeting of its members in Benin, further described the remarks by the state governor as disparaging.
“It is a notorious fact that several years ago, the Edo State government introduced a direct mode of collection of revenue for services rendered in all government health facilities that effectively makes it impossible for the management of these health institutions to have access to the collected revenue let alone the doctors who render only clinical services.
“Any lapses in the government revenue-collection process must not be blamed on any medical personnel.
“We are however aware that the entire 34 hospitals under the Edo State Hospitals Management Board (SHMB) survive on a paltry monthly subvention of about 15 million naira and are able to still generate substantial revenue that is collected directly by the State government.”
Commenting on the issue of private practice by doctors in government employment, the doctors drew the Governor’s attention to the fact that there is an existing law (Regulated and Other Professions (Private Practice Prohibition, Decree No 1 of 1992), regulating private practice by medical doctors in public service, which exempts doctors from the ban of public officials from private practice.
They added that the 2008 Code of Medical Ethics in Nigeria, Part E, 49 states that medical and dental practitioners who are in full time employment in the public service in Nigeria are free to employ their spare time and unofficial hours to engage in private medical or dental practice.
“It is therefore disingenuous to attempt to criminalize and demonize our hardworking doctors whose practice does not conflict with the code of conduct for public officials as they are even already working more than the period required by law.
“If it is even true that doctors own private clinics, Central Hospital, Benin City, is an unlikely place for patient recruitment as only indigent patients who cannot afford the cost of treatment in private and federal Health institutions patronize the hospital,” the statement said.
The ARD, while denying refusal to be posted outside Benin City, noted that the shortage of skilled health workforce meant that a limited number of doctors have to attend to hundreds of patients daily and it is known that quality health care cannot be rushed.
“It is true that there is an unacceptable disproportionate distribution of doctors between the rural and urban areas in Edo State when you consider that the main urban areas of Benin and Ekpoma axis have UBTH, Central Hospital.”
