Sodiq Ojuroungbe Rural doctors, nurses and Community Health Extension Workers have petitioned the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate and the executive secretary of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Muyi Aina over months of unpaid arrears, citing financial hardship and frustration it has brought on them. The health workers, employed under the Expanded Midwives Service Scheme of the Federal Government, through NPHCDA, alleged that the government has neglected their plight, despite repeated promises to address the issue. The petition signed by some of the health workers and made available to PUNCH Healthwise on Sunday evening described the emotional toll the months of unpaid salaries, allowances, and benefits have had on them.
The health workers said they feel abandoned, demotivated, and exhausted, with many of them struggling to feed their families and pay bills. PUNCH Healthwise had earlier reported on the unpaid accumulated salaries and alleged ill-treatment from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and Sydani Group, and how it had left the health workers traumatised, impoverished, and stranded. The report with the headline, ‘How FG scheme for improved maternal, child health in rural areas, impoverished health workers’, was published on Sunday, March 17, 2024.
It chronicled how the health workers, who always work for long hours, get little support from the FG. While some alleged that the NPHCDA owed them.