Don’t withhold our salary, health workers warn FG

President of the Nigeria Society of Physiotherapy, Taiwo Adewumi, has warned the Federal Government not to withhold the salaries of the striking health workers, saying that such method would aggravate thesituation.Speaking at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, on Tuesday, Adewumi said that the workers were aware of the plan to frustrate their efforts to press home their demands.He said the workers were eager to return to work but had yet to receive the Federal Government’s circular that would formalise the agreements already reached.He said, “We are aware of the effect of the ongoing strike on the hospitals involved. This is because hospital services require team work. No profession can stand on its own unless the team works together as a unit. The NSP is a professional body that shares in the principles of the World Confederation of Physical Therapy and we are also members of the Joint Health Sector Unions. The eight-point demands of JOHESU and Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals are still the same but it is disappointing that the Federal Government has refused to do the right thing.“Since the declaration, there has been a series of meetings with the government representatives. Six meetings were held between October 15 and December 24, 2014. The Minister of Labour and Productivity, who presided over the December 22, 2014 meeting, promised to meet President Goodluck Jonathan to get approval leading to the issuance of circulars on the said matters.“Out of the 10 circulars we are expecting, only one was issued which is the one concerning consultant status of other health professionals. We are ready to call the strike off but it seems the President is being fed with wrong information on the effect of the strike. That is why he has not issued the approval for our demands. We are trying to meet him personally so that he will understand what we are demanding.”Adewumi said the workers had rejected some of the recommendations of the Yayale Ahmed Report because some of the issues raised were matters that were still pending in law court. He therefore lamented the brain drain in the health sector, blaming strike and ill-equipped health institutions for the trend.He said, “Fifty per cent of physiotherapists trained in Nigeria are practising abroad because of uncertainty over their future and non-recognition of their status as major players in health care delivery.The Yayale Ahmed Report duplicated duties and that is one of the reasons why we rejected it. We rejected the office of the surgeon general so there is no reason for the report to introduce or recommendit again.”