THE Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has charged the Federal Government to harmonise its remuneration schemes for health workers in the on-going negotiation for better pay to avoid another round of crisis in the sector.

President, PSN, Anthony Akhimien, gave the charge yesterday at a media briefing on the association's forthcoming 82nd Annual National Conference, which holds from November 9 to13, 2009 at the La Beau Emporium Conference Centre, GRA, Benin City, Edo State.

Akhimien said: "Government must embrace the principle of justice and equity to all concerned by fixing wages of healthcare-providers based on the recent job evaluation conducted under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Health and office of the Head of Service in arriving at wages of all health workers.

"The injustice in the health sector has been the basis of industrial disharmony that we have witnessed in Nigeria in the past 18 years. We note with concern that government has reintroduced a Medical Service Scale (MSS) for doctors despite the tendency of the action to trigger another vicious circle of industrial disharmony in the multidisciplinary health sector".

The theme of the PSN conference is "Pharmacy: Ethics and Politics".

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in September approved a new MSS pay structure for medical doctors in the employ of the Federal Government.

The government is currently negotiating with other health workers, including pharmacists, on a special salary scheme.

Other health workers, led by the PSN, had in July 2009 cautioned the Federal Government against approving a separate salary structure for medical doctors. They said a discriminatory pay scheme would only engender a vicious cycle of industrial disharmony in the sector.

According to the association, the way forward is to adopt a general salary scale for all workers in the sector.

Akhimien said the new MSS should not be for doctors alone but applicable to nurses, pharmacists and other health workers.

He added: "We advise the doctors not to interfere in the on-going negotiation with the Federal Government. We are saying this because they have done that in the past by insisting that other health workers should not be above a certain level.

"The on-going negotiation should be addressed on fair play and justice. If other health workers decide to withdraw their services, I don't know how the doctors will run the health sector on their own".

The PSN president said all Nigerian workers have a legitimate right to demand their professional privileges, adding that the group deemed it an insult for doctors to dictate what government should pay other workers in the health sector.

Akhimien said ethical issues about pharmacy and pharmacists would be reviewed and strengthened at the conference as a foundation for modeling pharmacists' character and integrity.

He added: "For us in pharmacy, these are certainly not the best of the times because of persisting assaults from government at all levels in recent times.

"We, however, take solace in the belief that these series of developments will eventually strengthen and reposition our profession to achieve its set goals ultimately in public interest".