Doctors Protest Non-Payment of Salaries

The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) has called on the hospital management as well as the Federal Ministry of Health to pay its members their outstanding salaries ranging from three months to seven months in arrears. The call was made by the President of the association, Dr. Ramon Moronkola, during a peaceful protest staged by the doctors recently in the hospital premises to press home their demands.

The doctors who went round the hospital premises during the protest, displayed placards with various inscriptions, including: “LUTH Management, Ministry of Health, Accountant-General of the Federation and Budget Office Enough is Enough, pay our seven months
salary; Non-payment of our December Salary, and Stagnation of Many Doctors for Years at same Salary Grade Level”.

According to Moronkola, the hospital management has refused to pay majority of the resident doctors their December salaries till date, while some are being owed as much as seven months salaries. “Among other issues that are yet to be rectified are stagnation of salary grade level and non-payment of three months pension refund, the poor working conditions in LUTH such as epileptic power supply and lack of water supply,” he said.

Moronkola disclosed that though the leadership of the association has had meetings with the management but nothing is being done to address these issues. He said: “We had the worst Christmas and New Year celebrations, because we were not paid. Most of us did not enjoy the season because there was no money to celebrate the yuletide. Even by the end of February and nothing has been done.

“But the hospital management and the Ministry of Health paid salaries to other health workers, especially Joint Health Sector Union members who were on strike during that period. We are not on strike, we are not interested in punishing our patients, this is just a peaceful protest to register our grievances and fight for our rights. We also want Nigerians to be aware of our plight and help us to appeal to the relevant authorities to do the needful by addressing our demands.”

Moronkola said that the association will not hesitate to take drastic action to compel the hospital management to pay what it owes the staff, if the authorities continue to disregard its plea.