Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has approved the immediate employment of 500 health workers in the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt.
The Chief Medical Director of the RSUTH, Prof. Chizindu Alikor, who disclosed this in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, lauded the governor for the gesture.
Alikor said the governor also approved the promotion of 400 existing workers in the hospital who have remained in their present positions for over eight years.
The governor had recently held a meeting with the newly appointed members of the Rivers State Health Management Board.
Alikor explained that the approval for the employment of 500 personnel followed an official communication from the state Civil Service Commission to the RSUTH management.
He stated, “We received an official communication from the Rivers State Civil Service Commission conveying the approval of His Excellency, Governor Siminalayi Fubara to the board and management of the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital to proceed immediately in employing 500 healthcare workers into the hospital.
“The directive of that communication is that all of this should commence immediately and should be concluded within the next three months. And the understanding is that the staff should have resumed work in the next three months.”
The RSUTH CMD also confirmed an earlier directive to promote over 400 of the state teaching hospital who had not been promoted for more than eight years.
According to him, “The entire hospital community received with great excitement and joy the approval by His Excellency Governor Siminalayi Fubara for the promotion of over 400 staff of the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital who have not been promoted in the past eight to 10 years.
“It was received with great joy, great excitement in the hospital.”
Meanwhile, a retired surgeon in Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Albert Ekop, has urged governments at various levels to take a second look at the remuneration of medical practitioners to tackle the issue of brain drain.
Ekop, an octogenarian, spoke on Wednesday in Uyo while fielding questions from journalists after the launch of his book “The Tailor.”
“I think the first step will be the curriculum of training of medical students. We should go back to what we used to learn that health care is a social service, not an economic service. If we say this to the minds of these young people, the rat race for greener pastures will be reduced.
“Government too should be told that people who sacrifice for the health of individual souls should be compensated. The government should not dismiss their complaints with a wave of the hand. They are human beings; they buy from the same market. Government should take a second look at the remuneration of medical doctors,” Ekop said.
He explained that he named his book “The Tailor,” because that was the first profession his father wanted him to pursue.