The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) has stated that the increment in the retirement age of medical consultants to 70 years and other skilled health care workers to 65 would address the issue of brain drain, improve knowledge transfer and quality health care delivery in the country.
The president of the association, Prof Mohammad Aminu, who stated this while speaking with newsmen in Jos, commended President Bola Tinubu for the gesture and urged the minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, who played the critical role in getting the approval, to do the needful in formalising the proposal as quickly as possible.
It could be recalled that MDCAN has been in the forefront of championing the request for the increase in retirement age of its members to 70 years to address brain drain, improve knowledge transfer, and for quality healthcare delivery.
He argued that the extension of service allows consultants to attain 35 years in service like other civil servants in the country.
According to him, the average minimum age of graduation from Medical Schools these days is about 24-25 years stressing that one-year house-manship and one-year NYSC often lands most young doctors at 27 years.
He lamented that undertaking the Residency Training Programme from Primary Fellowship Exams to exit at Part two, takes a minimum of 6-7 years but can extend to 10 or more years.
The MDCAN boss further pointed out that at 60 years of age, a hospital Consultant has only put in 20-25 years in service and retires losing 10-15 years of active service years.
He said with the current devaluation of the Naira to the tune of N1,700 to $1.00, a young consultant’s monthly salary on CONMESS Salary structure crashed from 5,000 dollars in 2014 to about 500 dollars.
Prof Aminu further lauded the efforts of President Bola Tinubu, the minister of Health and Social Development, Prof. Mohammad Pete, the minister of State for Health, Dr I. A. Salako, the minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, and the minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi and other critical stakeholders for their roles so far, adding that MDCAN would continue to monitor the process till logical conclusion.
“We will reciprocate this gesture of Mr President and his team, by striving to continue to provide quality healthcare services to Nigerians and assist the government to achieve its set goals in healthcare, training and research” he said.
