Isolation centre doctors, others lament N30m unpaid allowances

Doctors treating the over 40 COVID-19 patients at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, have complained about the failure of the Federal Government to pay them their allowances, The PUNCH reports.

Our correspondent was informed that due to the sensitive nature of the disease, the government picked and trained the five doctors with a promise to pay them the sum of N50, 000 daily while nurses were to be paid N40,000.

The allowances are also supposed to cover feeding as well as accommodation

They were also promised hotel accommodation near the hospital.

However, top health officials told our correspondent that only N40,000 had been given to each doctor since they started working there on February 15, 2020.

A top source said the doctors had already started working on suspected cases at the isolation centre before the first confirmed case in Abuja on March 20, 2020.

He said, “We were paid N20,000 the first week and then N20,000 the following week and we haven’t received anything since then. When we started, we were promised N50,000 per day for doctors while nurses receive N40,000. The cleaning staff were promised about N25,000 per day.

“The health minister said during the Presidential task force briefing recently that we were well taken care of but we have not received anything besides the N40,000 in the last two months.

“When we went to understudy Lagos at the time the disease first broke out in February, we were told that the doctors were receiving N50,000 per day. In fact, Dr Ismail Abdusalam, who was in charge of the doctors, said N40,000 was paid to nurses, N20,000 to cleaners and then there was a special package for security while the staff that come in contact with patients would be placed on life insurance. That was the template we used.”

April 8, 2020

Comments

  1. Omor

    Nigeria government would never change ……Rather unfortunate

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *