Nurses in Abeokuta, on Wednesday trooped to the streets to protest what they described as terrible working conditions of their colleagues attached to Federal Medical Centre, Idi Aba in the state capital.
They alleged that the management has not been responsive enough to the plight of nurses who usually collapse under the pressure of heavy workload in an environment that is unconducve for humans to work.
The health workers who were members of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, NANNM, filed out with placards bearing different messages such as “Nurses’ Lives Matter,” “Nurses Workload is Enough for Promotion,” “Healthy workplace, healing spaces, nurses demand both”; “Improve nurses’ working environment” and “Stop Selective Promotion” while singing solidarity songs.
According to the protestng Nurses, there has been a shortage of manpower over the years, thereby creating heavy workload for the health workers. They also alleged that, despite the workload, the authorities still excluded them from the 2023 promotion exercise at the FMC, Abeokuta.
Spokesperson for the protesters who is also the chairman of the FMC Abeokuta chapter of NANNM, Olufimilola Adekunle called on the government to step in and address the situation before it gets out of hands completely.
She said: “It is really tough to survive; we had to collapse three units together. We are going to merge some wards together; that is what we are planning to do immediately after this protest because we cannot bear it any longer.
“We want the government to come to our aid; we are working and we need to be paid for what we do. All our rights should be given to us. Our next action is to down tools. We are going to write them and stop working because, in the past months, we have seen our nurses collapsing.”
Adekunle also disclosed that more than 200 nurses in the hospital have relocated abroad due to the unconducive work environment and the poor remuneration, adding that less than 300 Nurses are left at the popular health facility.
“In the past two months, we lost two nurses. Our lives are important. The workload contributed to the deaths and our nurses collapsing on duty. The only thing we enjoy from the management is this promotion; we don’t benefit from them,” she said.
Head of Clinical Services of the hospital, Dr Kunle Adediran, in his reaction, said promotion matters are not withing the powers of FMC’s Management but the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Health. He assured that the matters will be escalated to the minitry for appropriate action.
“We are all employees of the Federal Government and all that we do has to be done in compliance with the directives of the government. It is not entirely up to the management,” he said.
