Healthcare services across Nigeria have been severely impacted by an ongoing nationwide strike by the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM).
Persecondnews reports that hospitals and health centers are largely deserted, with many patients discharged due to the absence of nursing staff.
Only skeletal or emergency services are reportedly available in a few facilities.
The striking nurses are demanding improved staffing levels, better facilities, and greater recognition in healthcare decision-making.
Their grievances also include the creation of a Nursing Department in the Federal Ministry of Health, significant increases in shift duty, specialist, and uniform allowances, and the constitution of Governing Boards for the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) and Federal Health Institutions with fair representation for nurses.
Other demands involve upward review of call duty allowance, centralisation and re-categorisation of intern nurses, payment of teaching and peculiar excess workload allowances, retention allowance to combat brain drain, and tax waivers for health professionals.
In response to the strike, which is the first of its kind in over 40 years for nurses, unlike more frequent doctors’ strikes, the Federal Government has appealed for a halt to the seven-day warning action.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, met with NANNM leadership, urging them to embrace dialogue as the government works to address their concerns.
Further discussions are scheduled to find a resolution to the dispute that stems from a 15-day ultimatum issued by the association on July 10.
In Lagos, hospitals like National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, and Isolo General Hospital are largely empty while Igando General Hospital’s maternity ward echoed with unattended mothers.
In Abuja, government hospitals, including General Hospital in Kubwa, are operating with skeletal or no critical services while the Emergency Male Ward was notably empty.
A medical doctor confirmed that patients had to be discharged due to the inability to provide care, with only emergency cases not requiring admission being attended to.
In Edo, Osun and Oyo States, nurses and midwives at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex (OAUTHC), Ile-Ife, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan and University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) have joined the industrial action.
In Kwara, the NANNM chapter has joined the strike in solidarity with the national body, despite acknowledging Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s efforts in increasing nurses’ salaries.
Bayelsa State is not left out as public hospitals, including Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Yenagoa, abruptly discharged patients while in Niger State, nurses in state facilities and federal health institutions, including Kpakungun PHC, Tunga PHC, and General Hospital Minna, were absent.
Other states impacted by the strike include Plateau, Delta, Ondo, Nasarawa, and Ogun.
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