Nurses Begin Warning Strike In FCT

Nurses have begun a three- day warning strike by withdrawing their services in all Federal Capital Territory (FCT) hospitals over what they described as draconian policies by the FCT administration.=

According to the notice by the umbrella body of the nurses, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives ( NANNM) FCT Council, which was jointly signed by its chairman and secretary,

Mohammed Bida and Mrs. Christiana Kagah said the decision was sequel to the review of the 21-days ultimatum which elapsed on November 28.

The association said it took the decision, saying, "After exhaustive deliberations, the house resolved as follows: That since the extension of the 21-days ultimatum elapsed on November 28 2013, and issues raised have not been met, notice of three days warning strike is hereby given which shall commence by 12:00 midnight of Tuesday (yesterday) December 10, 2013.

"That if nothing is done on the issues raised, after the warning strike, the members will commence an definite strike as from Monday December 16, 2013 without further notice, until our demands are fully met."

However, reacting to the story, the head (Public Relations Unit) of Health and Human Services Secretariat of the FCT, Mr. Badaru Yakassai, said that the matter was being settled amicably.

Among the grievances of the nurses include stoppage of October salaries of some Nurses who were not captured during the biometric data verification in FCTA Hospitals, without official notice; inadequacy of Nurses/Midwives; non-release of 2012 promotion list; lack of training and retraining of Nurses and opening of new units in FCTA Hospitals without corresponding staff.

Bida said that, "At present, we have less than 1,000 Nurses manning 11 Hospitals in the FCT; there are 844 beds with a monthly patients admission of 15,000 daily, excluding outpatients. Our people are dying daily because they are being overworked. We are not demanding for salary increment this time, but staff recruitment.

"In view of the above, there is urgent need for the state of emergency declared in September 2013 in the Primary Healthcare services to be extended to the secondary healthcare services in terms of recruitment of Nurses/Midwives.

This will go a long way to save our members from frequent and daily breaking down and to cope with teeming population of patients into our healthcare facilities."

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