Nurses and Midwives from Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Idi Aba, and Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, yesterday protested against the decay in the health sector and alleged discrimination against them by the Federal Ministry of Health.
The nurses and midwives converged at the premises of the FMC, Idi Aba, under the aegis of National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Federal Health Institutions (FHI) chapter.
During the protest, they were armed with placards with various inscriptions such as ‘Federal Ministry of Health, don’t downgrade nurses’, ‘Federal Ministry of Health please respect court judgement’, and ‘Nurses are professionals that should be respected and not treated as slaves’ among others.
Speaking for the association,the Chairman Joint Health Sector Unions, FMC charter, Samuel Idowu, the unit chairmen in FMC and Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abosede Fagoyinbo and Oluwayemisi Falana all, lamented the alleged re-designation of nurses, which they noted was not in line with the scheme of service of their members.
Idowu, who read a speech of the national secretary of the association, Gambo Dan- Fulani, complained of non-payment of promotion arrears for upward of four years to deserving members.
He also condemned the deteriorating state of infrastructure, functional equipment and non-availability of adequate medical consumables in federal health institutions, a situation which he said had worsened in recent times.
Falana on her part flayed the lack of consumables in these federal health institutions, arguing that the Committee of the Chief Medical Directors/Medical Directors had failed in running them efficiently, thus turning the hospitals to mere ‘consulting clinics’ where there were no drugs and other essentials.
Also speaking during the protest,unit Chairman NANNM,FMC chapter, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Comrade Abosede Fagoyinbo linked the problems of non-availability of consumables in the health sector to the introduction of Treasury Single Account.
Fagoyinbo urged the Federal Government to remove the health institutions’ account from the TSA.
Source - Vanguard
