Maduako Igbokwe l Thursday, January 09, 2019
ONITSHA, Nigeria – Refusal by the Chief Medical Director of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojuckwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Amaku, Awka, Anambra state to augment staff salaries with N6 milliion has been fingered as the major reason members of Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) are still on strike.
A source who spoke to our reporyer said the state governor chief Willie Obiano had paid N21million but that the CMD was expected to augment the salaries with just N6milliion.
The source who never wanted his name on print, stated that the CMD of COOUTH had refused to use hospital Internally Generated Revenue ( IGR) to augment salaries, while MDCAN members are insisting that he must augment salaries with IGR before suspending the 39 days strike.
The source who is close to the hospital told our reporter that MDCAN members have vowed to continue with the strike action which has paralysed activities in the hospital until the CMD does the needful. According to the source, in efforts to persuade the CMD to augment the staff salaries with IGR, led to a meeting of stakeholders at the hospital on Friday where every entreaties made for him to see reason why he must use N6m to augment the salaries failed .
According to the source, some of stakeholders who attended the meeting include senior professors and members of MDCAN as well as some emeritus professors who were disturbed by the strike.
The source said that, MDCAN strike which started since 1st December 2019 is ongoing because of the unbending posture of the CMD to augment salaries with just N6million.
The source said that there was no teaching hospital in the country that is not augmenting staff salaries with IGR and wondered why the CMD thinks differently.
