The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) have called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the health sector.
The National Chairman of the association, Wale Olatunde, said that such measure would purge the sector of inefficiency and corruption. Olatunde who made the call yesterday, at the on-going annual labour workshop in Abuja with the theme: “Harmonious Trade Dispute Resolution: A Panacea for Healthy Industrial Relationship”, said there was need to liberate the administration of health care system from doctors, who he claimed “are ruining the public health institutions through privatisation.” He urged the federal government to ensure full and urgent implementation of the terms of agreement it entered into with the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) on Sept. 30, 2017, adding that the agreement would save Nigerians further pains and untimely death.
Also speaking, The National President, NANNM, comrade Abdulrafiu Adeniji, said of the association has directed its members in all health institutions in the county, to join the ongoing strike by the Joint Health Sector Union if federal government does not meet the demands of JOHESU. Adeniji claimed that medical doctors were deliberately ruining the health sector and ensuring industrial disharmony for pecuniary gains, to promote their private practices that are often the beneficiaries of industrial crisis in the health sector. He said: “NMA are the ones making sure the health sector is not performing well.
The money that the government is spending on them on residency is a waste, because they don’t spend much years to even serve the country that trained them.
“All they are working towards is privatisation of the healthcare system for their selfish interest, and that will make healthcare services unattainable for the masses. “Medical doctors in Nigeria have become jack of all trade, master of none, that is why our health system is going down. In the 80s we were number four in the commonwealth nations, today we are 187 out of 190. “If government does not attend to the JOHESU call, nurses in the state and local government will be withdrawn.” He further called the government to provide a healthcare service that is affordable, accessible and available.
