The Federal Government has said the increased hazard allowance would be implemented in January 2022.
The National Association of Resident Doctors made this known to newsmen on Wednesday.
In a chat with PUNCH Healthwise, the NARD President, Dr Dare Ishaya, spoke about the increase. Ishaya said that the allowance will be increased to a percentage of the basic salary. Although, this depends on the grade level and basic salary of each doctor.
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Ishaya said, “We have finalised discussions on the hazard allowance with the Federal Government. We will come up with a circular and it will be implemented in January 2022.
“We were made to understand that it is captured in the 2022 budget. So, implementation will start in January 2022. We have finalised the discussion that it will be increased to a percentage of the basic salary depending on the grade level and basic salary that’s one is earning.”
He also emphasized the need for the government to implement the agreement reached.
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“We have finished discussion but the problem will be the implementation. Usually, the problem is the implementation by the government,” he said.
Ishaya said despite the agreement reached with the NGF, doctors in some states had not been paid.
These states are; Abia, Imo, Ekiti and Ondo. He said the doctors in these states are owned: 20 months, six months, four months and four months’ salary arrears respectively.
“We had agreements with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) when they had a meeting a few weeks ago, we agreed on the modalities to offset those arrears but up till now, no state government has called us.
“The secretariat of the NGF has not invited us for any meeting. They are supposed to anchor the discussion with the various state governors but we haven’t heard from them.
“We will reach out to them to remind them of our agreement,” Ishaya said.
“The conditions of these doctors can only be imagined because the economy of the country is not blossoming that one can look for alternative sources of income.
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“So, they have been forced to be in a very precarious situation, not by their own making but because they have not been paid.
“They cannot pay their house rents, even to get money to go to work. Just imagine the psychology of such a doctor coming to attend to a patient, and thinking of how his family will be fed and how his children will go to school, and thinking of how to come back to work. Yet, he is attending to patients,” he explained further.
Source: PUNCH HealthWise
