Niger Suspends Medical Consultant for Professional Misconduct

Laleye Dipo in Minna

A medical consultant in the employment of the Niger State Government has been suspended from office.

This is even as the state Ministry of Health and Hospital Services has discovered that one of its staff members has been receiving salary for over three years without stepping into either the hospital or any of the offices in the ministry.

The medical consultant was suspended for “gross professional misconduct.”

Another staff of the ministry was found to be officially on Grade Level 4 but has been receiving the salary of grade level 14 staff.

The state Commissioner for Health and Hospital Services, Dr. Mohammed MakunSidi, told journalists at the end of the State Executive Council meeting in Minna yesterday that one of the doctors and some nurses in an unnamed hospital were found culpable in the death of a pregnant woman and the unborn baby.

Makunsidi also revealed that one medical doctor is now on the run having been discovered to have opened a private hospital where he was diverting patients, adding that the “doctor has been suspended and transferred to the General Hospital in Minna.”

The commissioner explained that the most senior health officer among those sanctioned was given “extension for three months without pay,” while others were placed on ‘Call Duty’ for the same period.

Makunsidi, who said the state executive council has approved the various punishments meted out to the erring practitioners, also decried the rot in the ministry and the attitude of some health workers, saying: “It is unfortunately that this syndrome has cut across all sectors as well as the society in general.”

He said health “is everybody’s business,” stressing that the state cannot afford to be losing lives indiscriminately before urging the public to take advantage of the communication channels opened to report erring practitioners.

The commissioner further announced that the ministry has a vacancy for 2,508 staff but submitted that “the vacancies will be filled in batches.”