Bala approves new salary, welfare package to lure doctors, health workers

Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has approved a new salary structure and welfare package for medical doctors and other health personnel to address the scarcity of doctors in the state.

This was disclosed by the Head of Service, Mohammed Umar, while briefing journalists at the end of the State Executive Council Meeting on Friday.

Umar said the council gave approval for a comprehensive remuneration and welfare package to attract and retain doctors and other health workers in the state.

The Head of Service explained that Governor Bala Mohammed was deeply concerned with the rate at which doctors and frontline workers, such as midwives, abandon the state, leading to a significant manpower shortage.

He explained further that the state government constituted a committee to investigate the trend found that medical doctors were leaving the state because of the issue of the welfare package.

He said, “Hence council has approved the implementation of a comprehensive salary structure in the state, including Consolidated Medical Salary Structure CONMESS and COHESS for health workers.

“Council also ratified and approved that welfare package will include housing, car loans, allowances that have to do with rural posting, security around health institutions, improvement about what has already been done about working equipment, perimeter fence in our health institutions, including welfare and salary package for youth corps members, that are working in facility.

“The aim is to attract and retain health workers in the state. Others are lingering issues that have to do with the promotion and advancement of medical officers and other personnel, including pre-service training”

He disclosed that a committee would be set to facilitate the implementation of the agreed salary package for doctors and other health workers in the state.

Speaking further on the development, the Commissioner for Health, Sani Dambam, appreciated the governor for the gesture, saying the health sector has been receiving topmost priority since the inception of the Mohammed-led administration.

“The governor declared a state of emergency, and all the bureaucratic bottlenecks have been removed to achieve the desired goal in the health sector. He convened the first health summit in the north, which brought out a blueprint for the development of the state under the My Bauchi project plan.

“The governor has consistently provided 15 per cent budgetary allocation to the health sector. The governor has been consistent, and he has also renovated the health facilities in the state and lifted the embargo on the recruitment of domiciliary workers and recommended the pre-service scheme that previous administrations suspended.

“He has now capped it up with this comprehensive package for doctors and health workers, which will now enable us to be at par with our counterparts in the federal service.

“We are optimistic that there will be a significant improvement in the health sector as human resources have the right manpower and the required number will improve the sector,” he said.