Mandate Secretary for Health in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr. Dolapo Fasawe has said that the FCT Administration has already employed 37 medical doctors to boost healthcare delivery in the nation’s capital city.
She said that plans are in advance stages to employ about 300 other health workers for the same purpose.
Dr. Fasawe, who spoke to newsmen on the resolution of the misunderstanding between the Administration and medical doctors in its service, said that already payment of health workers’ allowances has been approved.
Dr. Fasawe said that before the payment of the allowances, necessary bureaucratic procedures would be followed.
“In every organization, both public and private sectors, there is documentation, there is uploading, there is verifying, there is ensuring that the payment systems is not distorted and this is not a one-time payment.
“The good thing about the approval by the minister, Nyeson Wike is that we will not have this agitation again.
“For his approvals to be sustainable, we need time for administrative purposes. I cannot give you a definite time but I can tell you for example, the low hanging fruits like employing more doctors is already in effect.
“As of today, 37 doctors have been employed and we are in the process of employing close to 300 healthcare workers.
“In the shortest possible time, this is a priority to the minister; every allowance will be paid so that we do not come back to this agitation again next year.
“We have to put in place sustainable systems to ensure that these people are paid automatically. “That is why it cannot be a quick fix and next year we are back to this table again discussing doctors’ strike.”
Meanwhile, the President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Dr. Osundayo Tope Zenith expressed gratitude to the FCT minister for acceding to the requests of the Association, saying that the recent strike action by his members was not politically motivated.
According to him, the strike was aimed at drawing the attention of the minister to the challenges of the health sector in the FCT.
“The essence of all that we are doing is to draw his attention. It is not that we are a political stooge or we are trying to fight the FCT minister or to fight anybody. Nobody is using us. “We are doing what is right to get his attention and his attention was gotten. “He attended to everything that was listed in our demand.
“We want to appreciate him for being generous, for being a father and we also want to appreciate him because he’s taking matters of health as a priority.
“He is been called Mr. Project and apart from the projects, he has also approved the demands from the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), FCTA.”
The President also appreciated the Mandate Secretary, FCT Health Secretariat for her role in resolving the contending issues of the health workers.
