RAYMOND OZOJI reports
The joy of health workers in Anambra state knew no bounds when Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo recently approved the implementation of the long awaited 100% Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) for all segments of the state health workforce.
The health workers had since continued to appreciate the governor for achieving such milestone and lifting them out of abject penury and deprivation because they have now joined their counterparts in other states of the federation to enjoy full package.
But the health sector unions in a statement dated 3rd October, 2025 and jointly signed by Dr. Ikedi Onah, comrade Afam Kanayo Udeozo and comrade Ugwu M. Nnabugwu and released over the weekend, has it that while the unions congratulated the Head of Service of the Anambra State Civil Service for being instrumental to the skipping of CONHESS 10 and Enhanced Entry Point for B.Sc Nursing respectively, it was equally of paramount importance to draw attention to the omissions and discrepancies in the CONHESS Implementation as approved by the governor.
The statement which revealed a long list of health professionals that were omitted in the implementation raised questions on the parameters deployed in the exercise to avoid issues of outright marginalization and exclusions.
The statement partly reads, " HOS/ED/ADM/174/28: The following NUAHP members were omitted; pharmacists, dental technologists, occupational therapists, dieticians, nutritionists, health records/information managers, health records/information technologists, medical social workers, speech therapists, clinical psychologists, prosthetics/orthotics, medical physics, audiologists including EEG and ECG specialists. While only two categories of MHWUN were included, pharmacists and medical laboratory technicians.
In other words, scientific officers, community health practitioners, environmental health workers, dental technicians, opticians, veterinary officers, leprosy control officers and inspectors; blood donor organizers, health records/information technicians, medical statistical assistants, assistant physiotherapists, physiotherapy technicians, all administrative staff, all accounting staff, all staff of the works department, all staff in the stores, ambulance drivers, porters, health attendants, etc were omitted.
In HOS/ED/ADM/174/29 the same omissions were made in this circular except pharmacists and dental technologists were added to this. Also, pharmacy interns were added in this circular. We are therefore of the opinion that the adding of any intern is not necessary as it might give the wrong impression that interns of other professions were not captured, for example, Nursing and Laboratory Scientists. All interns are already captured in the CONHESS salary structure.
We are confident that these omissions will be corrected thus covering all our members. Only then can Anambra state be said to be 100% implementing CONHESS. It will be unfair to have workers in the same industry on different salary schemes or on the same salary schemes but different levels of implementation. "
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