November 11, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has reported that not fewer than 48 doctors have been badly affected by the flooding that occurred in Maiduguri Metropolis and some parts of Jere council areas of Borno State.
Most of those who were displaced were magnanimous enough to render humanitarian services within the 36 camps created for internally displaced people (IDPs) from the sudden flood.
Dr Yakub Mohammed, the State Chairman of the NMA, gave this hint during the celebration of world physicians day at the NMA Secretariat in Maiduguri.
Dr Yakub said that the NMA executive did their best to ensure that they visited the affected doctors, who fled their homes away from the flood waters and empathised with all of them individually.
“As a matter of fact, we have bylaws which we invoke to give them all the support they need to make them fall in line with our standards of provision of welfare for our members.
“Incidentally most of them who found themselves attending to patients in IDP camps were equally involved in the provision of services to the entire populace which was affected by the sudden surge of water from Alau dam.
“This meant we had to activate our humanity support system for other flood-affected residents too to be involved in instant outreach services to hundreds of residents in various camps that needed medical care.
“We even made sure that hot meals were cooked for the IDPs numbering over 400 for the first week of the flood. And that went a long way to help people out of despair.”
The Chairman noted that the annual physician week is set aside by the United Nations to celebrate doctors and understand their contemporary challenges even as they proffer solutions to some of them.
Speaking on the peculiar challenges affecting his members, the Chairman regretted that brain drain is one glaring problem which occurs as a result of the lingering disparity between practitioners in the country and others outside who work in much more conducive environments.
“Brain drain is our major problem in this part of the country. We have just about 800 doctors providing services to people in the entire state and you know what that means. It puts stress on individual doctors who do the jobs of many.
“This is what results in burnout syndrome which in most circumstances is a very strong factor responsible for the state government losing many doctors to other states and the federal government with more personnel and remuneration.
“Health care professionals should be paid across the board because health is not on the exclusive list in terms of remuneration. So in response to your question, we would be glad if the federal government could take over the payments of remuneration of doctors as they have done in the judiciary to ensure sanity and stability.
“The State govt is losing lots of medical doctors yearly and this is worrisome to us because one doctor is left to cater for hundreds of patients in a day and you know what that means to the mental state of that practitioner. That is the only way to mitigate the problem”, he stressed.
On arrears for his colleagues, Yakub said that the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) was revised and implemented in January this year but they are yet to see the corresponding response to this directive on their pay slips.
Highlights of the celebration of the week were visitation to orphanages by doctors in Borno state.
