Health Professionals Carpet Senate over Provisions in Medical Council Bill

The Senate has come under fire for approving some sections of the contentious Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) Act Amendment Bill which includes the power to control Clinical Laboratory practice in the country on the council.

Chairman of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), the umbrella body of health workers in the country, Comrade Bio Josiah, who described as aberration, the Senate approval, including Section 40(1)b and (2)b of the bill which suggested that only Medical practitioners and Dentists could hold the title of Doctor.

He also decried interpretations of a provision in the bill which confirm that it was the MDCN that certifies ‘medically qualified’ persons in Nigeria, and describing it as an attempt to formally institutionalise the ‘unholy clauses in the University Teaching Hospital Act where the condition precedent to emerge the Chief Medical Director and Chairman – Medical Advisory Committee of these hospitals is grounded in being Medically qualified’.

Mr. Josiah accused Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe of allegedly conniving with the Nigeria Medical Council (NMA) in spearheading the inclusion of offensive provisions into the MDCN Act Amendment Bill 2020.

‘’Dr. Oloriegbe did everything humanly possible to supplant and suppress the rights of stakeholders in health and beyond at Public Hearing (Third Hearing) through glaring unconstitutional acts especially through disenfranchising representatives of Associations and Unions. He introduced alien standards to Public Hearings by insisting individuals could not take positions contrary to the 1999 Constitution. All hell was let loose as people protested the high-handedness of Dr. Oloriegbe to the high heavens.

‘’Despite repeated assurances in high places, the Senate at its proceedings of Tuesday June 8, 2021 has gone ahead to approve the aberrations.

‘’We call on the Clerk of the National Assembly to formally stop further proceedings of the MDCN Act Amendment Bill because there are pending court actions in the Court of Appeal on who actually has powers to regulate and control Clinical Laboratory practice in Nigeria.”

He called for the stoppage of further consideration of the MDCN act Amendment bill 2020 as it contains items that are under litigation at the law court.

‘’Further consideration of the MDCN Act Amendment bill 2020 be stopped in deference to rules of proceedings at both the Senate and House of Representatives which forbids both arms of the National Assembly from considering bills which have items that are before Courts of law for adjudication.

Continuing, Josiah said ‘’While the glaring absurdities and aberration of the MDCN bill continues, Dr. Oloriegbe has yet again sponsored a deadlier National Emergency Medical Services Agency (Establishment) Bill 2021 (SB. 717).

According to him, ‘’Section 2 (2) of the bill which deals with the composition of the proposed Agency is the classical epitome of the inequality and injustice that is the hallmark of the Health Sector in Nigeria as championed by the likes of Oloriegbe’’.

‘’Apart from advocating a bill where both the Chairman and the DG/Secretary of the Board are Physicians/Medical Practitioners, 11 other board members making a total of 13 out of 24 potential board members are Physicians/Medical Practitioners.

‘’An emergency is perceived as a serious, unexpected and often dangerous situation requiring immediate or urgent redress. In the light of the foregoing, stakeholders would have imagined such endeavours will not be politicised. The shortcomings in the representation of Pharmacists, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Physiotherapists and Radiographers are an open invitation to unhindered calamity. In over 95% of emergency medical treatment, drug utilisation will be invited. The existing Pharmacy Act and National Drug Policy gives a specific approbation in law to pharmacists to procure, handle, store, distribute, sell, dispense, market, counsel, import, export and manufacture drugs and poisons in Nigeria. How do we advise victims and even other health professionals on potential side-effects, adverse drug reactions and drug related interaction profiles in the running of our emergency procedures? In similar spirit what happens to laboratory evaluations and other diagnostic appraisals from radiographers’’.

‘’Why deliberately jeopardise, albeit unlawfully the noble intendment of the National Health Act – 2014 which recognises pharmacies, laboratories and diagnostic centres and their practitioners in the dispensations of Medical Emergencies. Blood transfusion often is a key aspect of emergencies in the Health Sector, so who advises on the logistics and protocol of this at the top echelon of the agency. The Community Pharmacies which are globally recognised as facilities of first call have been given no role in Nigeria’s medical emergency plans in what is certainly bizarre.

He insisted that “this Agency as presently structured does not list the critical healthcare professional in care giving dispensations and logically cannot stand, adding that JOHESU and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) have appealed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives to shun concurrence and harmonisation of the MDCN Amendment Act bill between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

‘’The National Medical Emergency Agency bill 2021 should be completely jettisoned as the Federal Ministry of Health has already invoked the NH-Act 2014 which allows for guidelines to be developed in tandem with the Basic National Healthcare Provision Fund (BNHPF). Committees on Medical Emergencies have been set-up by the FG and State Governments in this regard.’’