The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has complained that Nigerian doctors still haven’t received the promised health insurance coverage or hazard Allowances promised by the federal government.
Speaking with journalists; The President, NMA, Dr. Francis Faduyile, said the country has only 300 critical care doctors, a number grossly insufficient should Nigeria’s COVID-19 cases surge beyond expectation.
“Those trained to operate critical care units are majorly the critical care anaesthesiologists. Unfortunately, we have only 300 of them in the country. Should there be a surge in COVID-19, it will mean we are in a short supply. Generally, we do not have enough doctors in Nigeria.”
Speaking on reports that the federal government was in talks with an insurance firm to provide life insurance to health workers fighting the pandemic, the NMA president said no health worker has been given any form of insurance.
“Some insurance companies have offered to give insurance to health workers, but what we hear is ?1 million or ?2 million life insurance for highly specialized nurses, doctors or consultants. You should know that this is gross under-issuance. Let the government come out to tell us what it has done, so we know who they have insured.”
On hazard allowance, he said no health workers had received such, adding that even though the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) promised to pay ?30, 000 and ?20, 000 daily to the doctors and nurses on the front line, none of such personnel had been paid.
“As we speak, we have a state chairman that has been infected, we have a president of one of our associations that has been infected, and we have several health workers that have been infected as at today. These people did not get COVID-19 while they were in their homes. They got it while treating Nigerians.”
He also mentioned that university scholars who are to provide scientific solutions, including vaccines and cure were being owed three months’ salary by the federal government, adding that this may hamper critical scientific researches against the pandemic in the country.
