Nurses’ strike: LUTH presents case, wants Nigerians’ intervention

Lagos—The management of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, yesterday, appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the hospital’s striking nurses to embrace dialogue and return to work.

Luth Mr Kelechi Otuneme, LUTH’s Head of Corporate Services, made the plea in Lagos.

 According to reports nurses and midwives in the hospital, under the aegis of National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, NANNM, had on June 10 commenced an indefinite strike. 

“We call on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on our nurses and midwives to let them embrace the tested democratic norms as the only means of conflict resolution in the present dispensation,” Otuneme said.

 According to him, the reasons the striking workers gave in a letter they wrote to the hospital management for the strike are not tenable.

 “Some of the reasons include non-promotion of 71 members of their association in the 2015 promotion exercise and non-payment of teaching allowance to LUTH nurses,” he added. Otuneme said the hospital management had made several entreaties to the nurses to embrace dialogue, but they were not yielding.

 “In 2015, LUTH interviewed and recommended for promotion over 200 nurses, including many that had been stagnated for several years due to various policies of the previous governments.

 “A list of 600 successful LUTH workers, including these nurses, was forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) for approval, with suitable recommendations that they should be promoted.

 “The ministry, however, excluded 71 nurses without the BSc Degree in Nursing because of the existing provision made by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.

 He said: “It stipulates that a nurse must possess a BSc Degree in nursing to advance beyond Level 12 of the current salary scale. 

“The association stridently insisted that LUTH management should ignore the directive of the FMOH and promote the 71 nurses.

 “They were advised and assisted to seek direct and further clarification from the ministry.”

 Otuneme said the ongoing strike was basically because officials of the association were among the 71 people who failed to obtain the requisite degree.

 “It was due to the fear of being overtaken by their better-qualified younger colleagues, especially now that the 2016 promotion examinations are about to commence. 

“However, LUTH management cannot and will not disobey constituted authority to pacify striking nurses who know very well that the final decision to promote our workers or not rests with higher authorities.

 “Non-payment of teaching allowance to LUTH nurses is a mischievous allegation as everyone knows that nurses are paid directly from Abuja through the IPPIS government platform. 

“Salaries and allowances such as uniform, teaching and so on are computed and paid directly to each nursing staff by the Federal Government. 

“The Federal Government recently requested for a compilation of all outstanding salaries and allowances from all institutions and our figures were promptly submitted,” he said. 

Otuneme said that LUTH management was committed to the maintenance of an enabling environment for the provision of service to citizens who expect nothing but the best. 

Reacting, the chairman of the association, LUTH chapter, Mrs Oluyemisi Adelaja, said that their action was due to inadequate equipment which had affected the operations of nurses and care for the patients. 

“Nurses are ready to work, but there must be provision of adequate equipment, electricity, regular water supply, provision of consumables, stationeries, motivational incentives, and arrears of legitimate benefits must be paid.

 “The allegation that 71 nurses concerned are union officials who failed to obtain the requisite degree is not true,”‘ she said. 

“All our executive members are not affected because they are all holders of BSc Degree, but the management is trying to stagnate the nurses,” Adelaja said.

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