Doctors Give Lagos Three Weeks to Implement CONMESS
Doctors under the aegis of the Medical Guild, on Wednesday, gave the Lagos State Government a three-week ultimatum to implement the reviewed Consolidated Medical Salary Scale (CONMESS).
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Medical Guild is the association of doctors under the employment of the Lagos State Government.
The Chairman, Medical Guild, Dr Moruf Abdulsalam, during a news conference on Wednesday, said the implementation of CONMESS in Lagos was long overdue..
NAN reports that CONMESS is the salary scale being paid to all medical and dental practitioners across the federation.
CONMESS was adopted to prevent internal brain drain and rural-urban migration among doctors.
Abdulsalam expressed dissatisfaction over the bureaucratic bottleneck causing the delay in the implementation of the reviewed CONMESS wage increase in Lagos.
He noted that their colleagues in the employment of the Federal Government had already started enjoying the payment since February 2024, with its accrued arrears.
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The chairman recalled that the association has its General Assembly meeting on April 27, resolved to give the state government four weeks to assent and implement the CONMESS wage.
Abdulsalam said, “Recently, there has been rural-to-urban migration of doctors but more worrisome to the medical guild is the spate of resignation of our doctors from the employment of the Health Service Commission, LASUTH and Primary Healthcare Board, to private medical practice or federal hospitals.
“This is due to poor remuneration, excessive workload and poor service conditions.
“This has tilted many of our colleagues into chronic fatigue, mental illnesses and burnout syndrome.”
According to him, a recent online survey conducted by the guild capturing the experiences of 940 doctors, showed that 59 per cent of the doctors reported an increase in the number of call duties; 86 per cent reported being overworked and 54 per cent reported low morale.
“Not surprisingly too, there has been a surge in mental illness among our doctors mainly from the excessive workload and poor conditions of service,” he said.
