Governor Emmanuel Applauded For Making Akwa Ibom Workers Highest Paid In Nigeria

Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Ime Udoh said this when he led a delegation of executive committee members of the Association to visit the Governor at Government House, Uyo, Saturday.

Dr. Ime Udoh, who thanked Governor Emmanuel for being the first Chief Executive to grant the Association audience in the state, lauded his administration’s passionate attention to healthcare.

He explained that “Your Excellency’s approval of a Consolidated Medical Salary Scale, CONMESS, places workers in the state government’s employ as highest paid in the country”.

Dr. Udoh further applauded the Governor’s ingenuity in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the commencement of the state university teaching hospital AKSUTH among other initiatives.

He said these were indicative of his government’s acknowledgement of health as the ‘sub-stratum’ for development, adding that the government has not only prevented capital flight from the state, but has, through the Jubilee Syringe Factory, attracted medical tourism to the state.

Receiving the NMA leadership, Gov Emmanuel, said with AKSUTH the state was set to bridge the gap between the already existing ultra-modern secondary and quaternary medical facilities in the state, and reiterated his administration’s resolve to maintain the status quo of the health workers in the state being the highest paid nationwide.

Governor Emmanuel acknowledged the contributions of medical practitioners in the state government’s fight against COVID-19.

Affirming his administration’s resolve to ensure a holistic approach in revamping the state’s healthcare sector, Governor Emmanuel said the Jubilee Syringe Factory, beyond its reputation of largest syringe production capacity in Africa, will soon venture into production of all plastic medical consumables, assuring that the state-of-the-art Akwa Ibom State University Teaching Hospital, AKSUTH, underway, will be a model tertiary hospital.

“Not just the syringe, we are starting other consumables; everything plastic consumable in the medical line, like all those gloves.

“We need a lot of your support in setting up our Teaching Hospital and we really mean business about that.

“As a state, we are doing well in secondary healthcare system. We jumped to establish a quaternary hospital. The next level is to set up a very good tertiary hospital.

“When we run that one well, well equipped, it will give birth to a College of Medicine. With what we have in mind and what we are going to bring in, we will have the best Teaching Hospital owned by a state government”.

“He congratulated members of the new NMA leadership in the state on their emergence and urged them to use the pivotal position of the Medical Association to support his administration’s drive towards a holistic development of the healthcare sector.

He rued that lack of good surgery recovery plan, bedside manners, laboratory services and other complementary services, can render the medical practice counterproductive.

“Where I am suffering very much now, as a governor, is bedside manners with recovering patients. When you finish as the Doctor it is not all over. The recovery of that patient at times is as serious as what you did, especially in the theatre.

“You only go on ward rounds, may be in the morning or evening, you don’t know what happens to those people, but I’m getting a whole lot of reports of terrible bedside manners of nurses and other medical workers.

“I’m also having a whole lot of issues is all these labs being set up and we are going to clampdown on them very soon”, the governor said.