By Chika Otuchikere
More than 70 per cent of medical doctors and other health workers in Niger State have rejected their posting to rural areas after getting their employment letters.
The state Commissioner of Health, Dr Murtala Bagana, made this known at a one-day orientation for the absorption of the 396 Gavi-Supported Staff into the Niger State Civil Service.
Bagana said the government has resolved not to entertain any excuses from the health workers who come to the state to seek reposting after gaining employment.
“More than 70 per cent of Doctors employed prefer to work in urban areas.
“Henceforth, we will not entertain excuses for reposting of any worker. Even though we have seen that there are issues around the availability of healthcare workers, we have realised there are also areas where we are experiencing mal-distribution of healthcare workers.
“We don’t want a situation where these newly absorbed workers are posted to a Primary Health Facility in the rural areas and for whatever reason they are requesting to be reposted to urban or choice areas,” Bagana said.
The commissioner, who warned that health workers in the state are not immune to being queried or sacked for misdemeanours, said there are several other medical practitioners waiting to replace them
“None of you (health workers) is immune to being queried or sacked for wrongdoings because there are thousands of persons who are waiting for replacement
“There is no special staff; everyone will be treated equally in the course of your service. Do not give reasons for you to be sacked by the government,” he stressed.
Bagana gave assurance that the state government would provide all the necessary equipment and a conducive environment for all the newly employed workers to perform.
The Executive Director of the Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Junaidu Inuwa, in his remarks, said there were plans to recruit another set of ad-hoc workers into the civil service as full-time workers.
Inuwa urged the absorbed workers to be disciplined and disclosed that the state had a shortfall in the workforce, but he said the governor had assured that he would address it by engaging enough health workers so that all the PHCs across the state would be well staffed.
“When Governor Umaru Bago came on board, he recruited 100 health workers. Out of that, a sizeable number were deployed to the PHC facilities; there is also another arrangement with the Federal Ministry of Health to engage 384 ad-hoc staff, which would be absorbed into the civil service in three years’ time.
“The farmer governor also assured that the state will engage at least 200 health workers every9999 two years. So, there are a lot of opportunities to see that our PHCs have enough human resources to function to their maximum capacity,” he said.
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