Coronavirus Pandemic
GOVERNOR Douye Diri of Bayelsa State has promised to pay special allowances to frontline health workers fighting COVID-19 pandemic in the state. He said the government was prepared to pay the COVID-19 hazard and inducement allowances effective from April 2020, when the state recorded its index case.
The governor in a statement during a meeting with the representatives of the labour unions, including the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, and the Association of Resident Doctors in Government House, Yenagoa, reassured the health workers of the administration’s commitment to give priority to their welfare and other challenges affecting healthcare delivery in the state.
Diri said the state was not having the financial capacity to adopt the federal government’s template for implementing the payment due to the steady decline in its revenues. On the issue of skipping for medical doctors, he assured them that the government would implement the policy as soon as the modalities were worked out by the committee handling it.
He, therefore, urged the labour unions to show understanding by prevailing on their members to accept the well-considered position of the state government. “Health issues will never be at the tail end of this administration’s programme. Rather, they will occupy the front burner and a very prominent place as far as we are concerned.
“Our team has had useful discussions with you. Our position which we are appealing to you seriously to consider is that we will pay only the frontline health workers, who are directly engaged in the COVID-19 response. And our position is not in isolation. It is a position we know quite some states are working on. The Federal Government can afford to do anything because it has less responsibility but more money.
“On skipping, the Head of Service, Hospital Management Board, the Ministry of Health and officials of the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital are working hard to get the final figures. We take it seriously because we believe that our doctors should not be treated differently from other doctors in the country,” he said.
Earlier, Peter Alabrah, state chairman of NMA, and Oru Inetsol, president, Association of Resident Doctors, Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri Chapter, urged the government to pay the special allowances to all health workers in the state.
Other unions represented at the meeting included the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria.
– Jul. 22, 2020 @ 12:19 GMT |
Tags: COVID-19: Gov Diri promises to pay hazard allowances to frontline health workers
