INDEFINITE STRIKE BY ASSOCIATION OF RESIDENT DOCTORS-BSUTH: THE ISSUES
Igbah Terhile Igbah
President, ARD BSUTH, Makurdi
In light of the press briefing by the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the BSUTH, Makurdi following the industrial disharmony at the facility, the ARD is compelled to enlighten the public on the contending issues:
NON-PAYMENT OF 18 MONTHS ARREARS OF CONMESS 2023
The current salary structures in the BSUTH were implemented in December 2024, following a strike action that started 28th November, 2024. The18 months arrears was not implemented. In the meeting where the matters were resolved, H.E Rev Fr Hyacinth Iormem Alia PhD requested the CMD to compile and forward the financial implications for the demands of the union. The first demand was “implementation of the 2023 CONMESS with 17 months arrears”. When alerts finally came in December 2024, the association discovered the now 18 months arrears did not reflect. Only the CMD and hospital management can explain how the governor’s directive to send financial implications for all demands was not followed, and the arrears was left out. Follow up discussions on the matter with the CMD since January 2025 yielded not positive results culminating into the ongoing strike action. The hospital management is advised to re-submit the financial implication for the arrears as was requested by H.E back then in December 2024. We believe the governor in his usual magnanimity will make the payments. It is critically important to note that the doctors in the College of Health Sciences and consultants have been paid these arrears in full.
NON-PAYMENT OF THE 2025 MRTF AND OUTSTANDING BALANCE.
The Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) is a yearly fund for resident doctors which supports registration for two post graduate examinations and update courses. The exams hold twice in a year, March/April and September/October. Doctors had to borrow money for the first batch of exams in March/April 2025. The registration deadline for the second batch closes today 12/8/25. The association had written to the CMD since 2nd April, 2025 to pay the money. Several further pleas and cries yielded nothing tangible culminating into the current strike action. We hope the payment is made immediately to enable members do late registration for the exams which will close in another one week. Please note that the payment of this yearly fund is a creation of law and annually budgeted for.
NON-IMPLEMENTATION OF 2025 INCREMENTAL STEPS & 7 MONTHS ARREARS
This is a seamless yearly additional step to the grade level of all staff. It does not translate to promotion. It is an addition to the salary for the new year thereby increasing your take home. For the first time in the history of BSUTH, this was not implemented by the CMD for no justifiable reason. Thus, BSUTH staff are receiving same salary in August 2025 as they did in December 2024. This is highly demotivating for a work force that is grossly understaffed and overstretched. The BSUTH staff managed over 95% of all victims of bandits and herdsmen attack in Benue. If the hospital has no incentive, staff should at least get all that is earned. Staff who are ordinarily not on duty are always called in to attend to these mass casualties.
COMPLETE RENOVATION OF THE DOCTORS’ QUARTERS IN BSUTH
Staying in the doctors’ quarters is compulsory, and not optional for resident doctors. We are called resident doctors because we are expected to be resident within the hospital as one can be needed anytime. In fact, part of the core requirements for accreditation of any facility for residency training is a befitting doctors’ quarters. The doctors’ quarters in BSUTH is currently in terrible conditions. Doctors have to collect rain water in buckets and basins, including moving their household items from one corner of the room to the other as it rains. The situation is not only pathetic but shameful, not befitting of the status of a doctor or teaching hospital quarters. Also, there are no stair case rails in the quarters which pose great risk of fall for children and adults. The association has video and pictorial evidence of the deplorable state of these quarters which has already been circulated to the appropriate authorities. We have also issued two communiques and had verbal discussions on this matter but with no significant improvement. Just recently, while the strike ultimatum was counting, the hospital management renovated and completely roofed a large cafeteria just in front of the dilapidated doctors’ quarters, clearly showing it is not bothered about the doctors who are sleeping in the rain.
SALARY ARREARS FOR NEW OR UPGRADED DOCTORS
The hospital management has adopted a recent trend where newly employed staff including doctors or those upgraded to deserving new salary levels are paid their first salaries without the accompanying arrears for the pending months. A staff who is newly employed or upgraded to a new level works for 2 or 3 months before his name gets to the payroll. He is however paid only one month salary excluding the salary for the other months he has worked. Many staff are currently owed an upward of 4 months of such salaries. The CMD has been given an ultimatum by the ARD to clear these salary arrears in 21 days.
We thank H.E Rev Fr Hyacinth Iormem Alia PhD for his kind disposition towards the health sector and Benue people. It is our sincere hope that our cries have reached him, and he would in his usual magnanimity resolve these issues amicably
