South West State in Nigeria abolishes contract doctors on HWN SPOTLIGHT

The Lagos State Government says it has abolished the recruitment of contract doctors and health workers in the state.

Speaking during a media parley held at the Conference Room of the Ministry, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, revealed that the move was part of Governor Ambode’s effort to restore peace and abolish the incessant strike actions in the sector.

He said the administration is committed to ensuring improved and quality healthcare for Lagos residents.

As part of this effort, the governor has already procured power generating sets, ambulances and portable x-ray machines for distribution to public hospitals, among other laudable achievements, he said.

Aside this, the Commissioner said that the State would train and retrain its health workforce to empower them to deliver qualitative service to the teeming populace.

He further said that this administration would focus on addressing the intra-professional rivalries among health workers, as well as other issues in order to achieve effective and qualitative service delivery to the general populace.

According to him, it will no longer be business as usual as Ministry will no longer tolerate any act of indiscipline and is ready to mete out sanctions to erring workers and show impenitent ones among them the way out.

The Lagos Health Ministry boss stressed that the challenges in the health sector may seem insurmountable, but the administration of Governor Ambode is committed to solving the problems step by step and systematically.

He also said that, Ayinke House project which was abandoned by the former contractor had been re-awarded to another contractor that is ready to deliver the project in record time of 12 months, contrary to speculation that the project has been abandoned.

He said: “The contractors handling the renovation messed it up. They had internal problems and they could not meet with the completion date of the project. The former administration even tried to help them yet, they failed so we had to terminate the contract.

As we speak, we are incurring demurrage on the equipment we imported for use in the facility. However, we have re-awarded the project to another contractor who has promised to complete it soon.

The Commissioner said that a technical team was already studying the medical insurance scheme with a view to implementing it in public hospitals. On the seemingly industrial health crisis in the State, Idris stated that a new synergy with the Lagos State Health Workforce had been developed which is already yielding fruitful results.

Source: NationalMirror, HWN Africa.