Nigerian doctors have asked the Federal Government to improve their work packages, welfare and create a conducive environment in order to achieve better health outcomes for the country.
They insisted that the quality of healthcare delivery will bring out outcomes which will improve the health indices of Nigerians.
The doctors under the aegis of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) stated this on Friday, in a press conference held in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital as part of activities marking their National Executive Council meeting which started on Monday.
National President of the Association, Prof. Bala Audu, stressed that an improved welfare and work packages would motivate doctors to provide better care, reduce brain drain, and ultimately lead to improved health outcomes for Nigerians.
He noted that despite the challenges facing the healthcare system, Nigeria has the capacity to offer high-end medical care to patients from across the country and beyond.
He said, “We leave this next meeting with a message to the government and the public, that it is the quality of what we put into our health care delivery system that will bring out quality outcomes and these outcomes will improve the health indices of Nigerians.
“We are calling on the government to prioritize the welfare of Nigerian doctors by improving their work packages and ensuring they have a conducive working environment.
“We call upon the federal government to fulfill all the demands that it has signed with Nigerian doctors and to ensure that these are implemented as a way of improving the inputs that doctors and health care workers make into our health care delivery.”
Audu commended the government’s recent efforts to address doctors’ concerns, including the 25.5% increase in professional allowances, but urged the government to include the new wages in the 2026 budget.
“The federal government has made some corrections on the total wages that doctors receive with a 25.5% application to the professional allowances that doctors and indeed other health workers earn. This needs to be captured in the budget so that implementation can start in January 2026.
“So we call upon the government to ensure that these wages are captured within the budget and so appropriated and implemented immediately with the budget of 2026,” he stated.
The Association, however, disclosed that it had adopted an orphanage in every state to provide health care, educational and nutritional support to vulnerable Nigerians, as part of its charitable activities to give back to the society.