The Adeoyo Hospital in Ibadan has discharged patients who were admitted following the nationwide strike embarked on by the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), which began on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the association has directed its members to commence a seven-day warning strike due to the Federal Government’s failure to respond to their demands.
Some of the demands of the nurses include an upward review of shift allowance, adjustment of uniform allowance, a separate salary structure for nurses, and an increased core duty allowance.
Also included in the demands are mass employment of nurses and the establishment of a nursing department in the Federal Ministry of Health, among others.
A visit by a NAN Correspondent to Adeoyo State Hospital, located on Ring Road, Ibadan, revealed that many of the wards had no patients admitted to the hospital.
NAN was informed that the patients were discharged, with only a few in critical condition still on the wards, but with no nurses to attend to them.
A relative of one of the patients in the female ward, Mr. Adegoke Rahman, said that some of the patients in the ward were told to go home due to the nurses’ strike.
Rahman said that his mother, who was still in the hospital ward, had just had an operation on her leg and could not walk or use her leg to stand.
He said that doctors were the ones attending to them, and no nurse was presently working at the hospital.
Additionally, Mr. Samuel Biyi, an outpatient, stated that he came to the hospital to treat a wound on his leg, but was not attended to.
He said that the leg was hurting him seriously.
One of the doctors on duty, who requested that his name not be published, stated that doctors and other medical personnel were not on strike and were attending to patients.
He, however, said that the hospital was not currently accepting patients for admission, but was attending to outpatients.
The doctor said that any patient with a critical condition not admitted was referred to private hospitals for treatment.
He said that the patients, on admission, had been told to go home since yesterday due to the nurses’ strike.
It would be recalled that the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Oyo State chapter, directed its members to comply with the seven-day nationwide warning strike starting from Wednesday.
The Oyo State NANNM Secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Aina, made this known in a statement on Tuesday.
Aina stated that the decision stemmed from the resolution of the emergency meeting of the National Executive Council of NANNM and a subsequent directive received from NANNM’s National Headquarters.
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