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Tag: Olorunnumbe Mamora

  • Return To The Negotiating Table, Dr. Mamora Appeals To Striking Doctors

    Return To The Negotiating Table, Dr. Mamora Appeals To Striking Doctors

    The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora has appealed to the striking National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to return to the negotiating table.

    He said that the ministry is not happy with what is going on because the primary duty of a doctor is to save lives and “any situation that can result in not completing that task is not one that is welcome anywhere.

    “So we will continue to appeal to doctors to come to the negotiating table so that we will continue to keep people alive when they are sick in the hospital”.

    Dr. Mamora made the appeal on Monday while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.

    The resident doctors embarked on an indefinite strike on August 2, over irregularities and owing salaries to housing officers.

    They claimed that the Federal Government has been mute since the commencement of the industrial action.

    But the minister denied the claims made by the striking doctors that it has taken 113 days of silence from the Federal Government since an agreement was signed which caused the ongoing industrial action.

    He said that “There are so many issues involved, some of these issues are not from the government’s side, some of these issues have to do with the state and not the Federal Government.

    According to him, there is a level to which the Federal Government can get involved, but ‘what the doctors should have done is to appeal to the Federal Government to speak with the state government on their behalf”.

    Some of these issues are non-payment of Death in Service Insurance to the next of kin of 19 of its members who died from COVID-19 complications.

    Others are; an upward review of the hazard allowance to 50 per cent of consolidated basic salaries of all health workers and payment of the outstanding COVID-19 inducement allowance, especially in state-owned-tertiary institutions.

    Earlier on Thursday, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire told journalists in Abuja that seven of 12 matters that were raised by the resident doctors were the responsibility of state governments.

    He asked the resident doctors to resume work on Friday and take up these issues with the state governments rather than embark on the nationwide strike as they had done.

  • We have paid N20bn allowance to Nigerian health workers – Mamora

    The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnumbe Mamora, has said that the Federal Government has paid up to N20bn as COVID-19 allowance to doctors and health workers in the country.

    Speaking during an interview on Channels TV, Mamora said it would be unfair if the doctors claim they haven’t received anything as COVID-19 allowance.

    According to him, the Federal government has so far disbursed N20 billion as COVID-19 allowance.

    “We have been able to pay the coronavirus inducement allowance because we had to suspend the hazard allowance for this period so that we can go into renegotiation after.

    “We are now paying, starting from 50 per cent of the basic of the workers depending on where the point of operation is.

    “We were able to pay April, May full, June, part of it has been paid but not fully paid and it’s because of the economic situation and these funds have to be sourced for one way or the other.

    “We have also been able to disbursed close to N20bn and I repeat close to 20bn.

    “So, to now say nothing has been done, that is not true.” he said.

    Mamora further stated that every worker in the Federal Civil Service is entitled to the Group Life Insurance Scheme which is domiciled in the office of the head of Civil Service of the Federation.

    He also said that the Ministry of Health only supervises the processes involved in the payments.

    “When a health worker dies, and he was an employee of the Federal Government, the information comes to us, goes to our Human Resources Directorate and it is processed.

    “Ours is to do a follow-up, but the office of the head of Civil Service will get these things done because they are the ones that interface with insurance companies because it is a group of insurance companies that manage this process.

    “But what we have discovered is that some of the time, the appropriate information is not made available.

    “For example, we have asked the various federal tertiary hospitals to come up with their nominal role, so we know who is on that list and stands to benefit in the event that death, unfortunately, happens.

    “We made that clear and the doctors said they now understand better,” he added.