The ICIR Journalist, @AmosAbba2 spent the past couple of days looking at the coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria and what will happen if a Nigerian doctor get infected.

https://www.icirnigeria.org/what-is-the-worth-of-a-nigerian-doctor-treating-covid-19-patient/

#Nigeriadoctors #CoronavirusPandemic #CovidNGR

ON March 26, the @nmanigeria, Kano State branch urged doctors in the state to make use of two months hazard allowance in the face of COVID – 19 pandemic, to purchase Personal Protective Equipment, PPE, for themselves in health facilities where PPE is unavailable. @NigeriaGov

In a memo announced by the medical association which was confirmed by the State chairman, Sanusi Muhd Bala to The ICIR, the doctors were directed to make use of their two months hazard allowance worth N10,000 to buy protective equipment to protect themselves. @MBuhari @GarShehu

Citing the rising number of COVID – 19 infections among doctors and health workers globally which was described in the memo as alarming, the doctors were advised to consider the move as a priority to protect themselves while carrying out their duties. @ProfOsinbajo

Speaking to The ICIR in a telephone interview, Bala painted a grim picture of scarce protective equipment for doctors in the state, and their anxieties with the government for failing to adequately prepare for a potential COVID – 19 outbreak. @NGRPresident

Bala also told The ICIR that the hazard fee paid to doctors in this country is N5,000 which is very small, for instance, if a doctor on the frontline contracts a disease while treating a patient & loses his life there is no fin-cover or insurance that covers him or his family.

For doctors at the forefront of containing the COVID -19 pandemic in Nigeria, the Federal government pays doctors in public hospitals a monthly hazard fee of N5,000 monthly which is equivalent to $13.64, for any risk they might encounter while carrying out their medical duties.

Their counterparts in Sierra Leone who attend to Ebola patients earn $115 weekly for the period they are working which translates into a monthly payment of $460 which is more than 30 times what is earned by Nigerian doctors as hazard claims. @toluogunlesi @akandeoj

In Liberia, during the Ebola epidemic, which claimed the lives of 95 medical personnel the Liberian govt-paid health workers in the frontlines a monthly hazard pay of $435 while Liberian doctors received $825 monthly hazard payment apart from their salaries which was alm doubled.

While in #Ghana, if a Ghanian doctor treating a #COVID2019 patient contracts the disease the insurance fee that would be paid by the Ghanian government to the doctor is GH₵25,000 which is estimated to be $4,332 translating to $361 monthly.

Bala: "When we lost two doctors to Lassa fever early this year their families were given N1 million each and that was the end of it no other form of compensation has been made to-date, despite our letter to them."

Good day, bosses, I reckon you might find this thread interesting.

@DrOlufunmilayo @NnamdiChife @cchukudebelu @elnathan_john @OgbeniDipo @Realoilsheikh @PeterAtangwho @NaijaFlyingDr @gimbakakanda @DrCOmole

#COVID19 #CoronavirusPandemic #NigerianDoctor #COVID2019