The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, NANNM, on Thursday, appealed to the federal government to accede to its demands to ensure improvement in healthcare delivery in the country.
The Secretary of the Lagos State chapter of the association, Mr Oloruntoba Odumosu, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Lagos.
Nigerian nurses, under the aegis of NANNM, had embarked on a seven-day warning strike on July 30 to press home some demands.
The strike, which follows expiration of a 15-day ultimatum the association gave to the government, is coming amid a faceoff between doctors and the government over welfare and other issues.
Odumosu told NAN that the government was to hold a meeting with national leaders of the union on Thursday to dialogue to resolve the issues leading to the warning strike.
He said that the outcome of the meeting would guide the association’s next line of action.
“Because it is a national issue and a national strike, we are not engaging the Lagos State Government; we can only put pressure on the Federal Government to listen to us.
“These demands have been long overdue; some of them are things that are four decades old.
“Ordinarily, we should have lost patience a long time ago. This is the first time the association has gone on strike as NANNM in over two decades.
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“Before we called for this strike, we had given the government an ultimatum which it failed to address; rather, it was addressing the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, and meeting with the members,” he said.
He said that nurses were the largest professional group in the health sector, urging the government to meet the demands.
“We want to stop brain drain, but we can’t if the policies are not there to address our concerns.
“We appeal to the government to accede to our demands quickly so that we can end this needless suffering and loss of lives among patients,” he said.
According to him, monitoring teams are on ground in all Lagos primary, secondary and tertiary public hospitals to ensure full compliance with the industrial action.
The strike has paralysed healthcare services nationwide, leaving patients stranded and putting pressure on other health professionals.
The nurses’ demands include gazetting of the Nurses Scheme of Service approved by the National Council on Establishment in 2016, upward review of professional allowance for nurses and midwives, and employment of more nurses.
The others include provision of adequate health facilities, creation of a department of nursing in the Federal Ministry of Health, and implementation of a National Industrial Court judgment of Jan. 27, 2012.
The NMA has also given the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum to meet its demands or face an indefinite nationwide strike by medical doctors.
Source: NAN
