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Gov. Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State on Saturday charged medical doctors in the country to exhibit a high degree of professionalism in the discharge of their duties.
Yakowa made the plea in Kaduna at the opening of the two-day annual general meeting of the state chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association.
The governor also urged the medical doctors to improve upon their attitude to work, in order to enhance service delivery and reduce the high mortality rate in the country.
He reiterated the commitment of his administration to the restoration of peace and unity in the state and pledged to provide adequate security for residents of the Kaduna metropolis.
Yakowa said that other priorities of his administration were the provision of social infrastructure, qualitative education, health service and the development of the agricultural sector.
While pledging to work closely with the association to improve the health sector, Yakowa announced the approval of this year’s medical festival, which he said was targeted at offering medical services to indigent patients.
He expressed regret at the nine cases of the wild polio virus recently recorded in four Local Government Areas of the state and disclosed that measures had been initiated to contain the spread.
The governor also pledged to address the association's requests regarding taxation of call duty allowance and the payment of an outstanding 10 per cent of CONMESS (the Consolidated Medical Salary Scale), to health sector employees in the state.
Dr Lawal Khalid, chairman of the occasion and Chief Medical Director, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, urged his colleagues to imbibe and practice the ethics of the profession.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Health, Mr Turaki Kalik, commended members of the association for ensuring industrial peace and supporting the administration of routine immunisation programmes in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that merit awards were given to the governor, Khalid and some other NMA members, for their outstanding contributions to health care delivery in the state. (NAN)
