The
Executive Secretary,
Nigeria
Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC),
NCPC
Corporate Office,
Plot
1348, Ahmdu Bello Way, Garki II,
FCT,
ABUJA.
Sir,
INEQUALITIES IN MEDICAL
TEAM BASIC TRANSPORT ALLOWANCE: TREATMENT OF NURSES AS SUBSERVIENT TO OTHER
CORE HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS IS UNCHARITABLE
Nightingales’
greeting to you and your wonderful team at the NCPC!
22. We
write to sincerely express our profound dissatisfaction with and shock at the
unwarranted inequalities in payment of transport allowance to members of
Federal medical team that participated in the Christian pilgrimage of December
2016, which saw nurses being unjustifiably shortchanged.
33. We
were made to understand that payment was made as follows: Medical Officers –
1500USD; Pharmacists and Pharmacy technicians – 1200USD; Lab Scientist and Lab
Technicians – 1200USD; Nurses – 1000USD; CHEW/JCHEW – 1000USD.
4. We
were also made to understand that the team worked in synergy with every member
playing a pivotal role in the overall success of the team during the trip.
55. Following
from the report of this irrational disparity in the payment of basic transport
allowance, we wish to verily emphasize that such action, if true, is blatantly
unjust and sullies the reputation of NCPC as a Christian organization that
fosters equity, fairness, unity and peace.
6. By
paying nurses 1000USD, when other core healthcare professionals who they worked
with received a minimum of 1200USD, the NCPC unjustly treated nurses as
subservient and inferior to the other core healthcare professionals. It doesn’t
have to be that way!
7. Nursing
is a globally recognized profession sui
generis that is as gainfully challenging as any other profession where
brilliant scholars distinguish themselves. Nursing, like Pharmacy and Medical
Laboratory Science, is run for 5 years in the university with similar O’level
and JAMB entry requirements. The basic nursing, RN, like the Pharmacy and Lab
Technician courses, is run for 3 years with similar entry requirements.
8. Similarly,
wherever and whenever the healthcare team is assembled to render care, the
nurse assumes the first and last point of call and is the central and
coordinating element upon which other members of the healthcare team must rely
on to function. Incidentally the nurse, because of the indispensable nature of
his/her role must stay with patients round-the-clock.
9. The
criteria employed in arriving at making nurses the least paid among the medical
team members remain incomprehensible and this has left us in abject
consternation. This is because among the nurses that participated in the
Federal medical teams for the pilgrimage are individuals with Bachelor of
Nursing Science (B.N.Sc), Master’s degree and PhD. Among them also are nurses
with experience and training in basic and advanced life support as well in
public health. The questions that beg for answers now are as follow: on what basis was the resolution to make
nurses the least paid derived? Was is on the basis of qualifications, years
spent in training, years of experience after training, acquisition of
additional trainings such as basic and advanced life support, level of
contribution to the work of the team, or mere professional nomenclature?
1 10. In
all honesty, we wish to be duly furnished with information on the criteria used
to arrive at this aberration. We can easily be reached through our official
email address, gnan2ugonsa@gmail.com.
And peradventure there is no justifiable reason for such, we humbly demand that
the commission does the needful by urgently rectifying the anomaly.
11. Furthermore,
it is equally instructive to succinctly call to your esteemed attention, sir,
to the fact that following the industrial arbitration panel (IAP) award to
nurses in the year 1981, the Federal Government rightly has it in its gazette
that the profession of nursing is on parity with that of pharmacy in Nigeria as
is the case in Great Britain.
12. Against
this background, we respectfully call on the NCPC to show equity to nurse
participants in its medical team by giving them similar treatment as other core
healthcare professionals’ vis-à-vis Pharmacists that they are on parity with.
13. In
our modest reasoning, we think it would be more equitable for the NCPC to adopt
the methodology used over the years by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC),
where all corps members irrespective of disciplines are treated as equal and
paid same amount as federal allowance. Like the NYSC, NCPC should honestly act
to be perceived as a scheme that does not purvey any form of marginalization or
injustice but rather as one that fosters equity, fairness, unity and peace.
PRAYER
In
the light of the foregoing, we respectfully demand the following:
a. That
nurse participants in the Federal Medical Team of the NCPC be paid whatever
their pharmacy counterparts were paid as both professions are on parity in
Nigeria as is the case in Great Britain.
b. That
the Nurse participants that were paid 1000USD be reimbursed with additional
200USD to make their payments up to 1200USD that was paid their counterparts in
Pharmacy.
c. That
nurse participant in future events of the scheme be treated as at par with
their pharmacy counterparts in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice and
in line with the good conscience of the IAP award.
d d. That
the NCPC should consider giving all the medical team members equal and flat
treatment in the future as is obtainable with the NYSC.
Your
considered response will be highly appreciated!
Submitted
with highest regard and deepest sense of responsibility!!
Signed:
Chief (Hon) S.E.O.
EGWUENU
Nurse G.I. Nshi
National President
National Secretary
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