JOS – In-patients have deserted wards in the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), following the absence of nurses to cater for them after morning shifts that end at 3 p.m.
The nurses have stopped shift duties to protest the non-payment of two months shift duty allowances, opting to all converge for morning shift that begins at 8 a.m. and end at 3 p.m.
They have also resolved to work only at week days, while shunning weekend duties.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who monitored the situation on Monday, reported that the wards were empty as in-patients had moved to either Plateau Special Hospital or Bingham Hospital, Jos.
NAN also found that doctors only attended to out-patients and those in the Intensive Care Unit.
Mr Mustapha Kabir, Chairman, Joint Health Sector Union, JUTH chapter, who spoke on the Nurses’ protest, told NAN that they were angry over management’s refusal to pay their shift allowances for March and April.
“In March and April this year, the Nurses protested the non-payment of their shift allowances, which were not captured, when the hospital migrated salary payments to IPPIS in 2015.
“During the protest, they resolved to shun shift duties. When government eventually resolved to pay the allowances, it left out the two months because the Nurses had abandoned shift duties as part of the protest.
“Government decided to enforce the no-work no-pay policy and has insisted that the Nurses will not be paid the allowances; that is why the workers are angry and have embarked on another round of protest,” he said.
Kabir expressed regrets that not much was happening in JUTH, saying that serious cases were now referred to other tertiary hospitals
“The referral has become necessary from here (JUTH), because there are no nurses to attend to those admitted after 3:30 p.m daily and at weekends.
“Again, the hospital has stopped carrying out surgeries because there will be no one to attend to the in-patients after 3 p.m.,” he said.
Kabir said that most hospitals in the state were currently over stretched as JUTH, the major tertiary hospital in the state, had stopped admitting patients.
“JUTH is also a training institution, but students in the hospital are not being trained because there are no in-patients to be understudied,” he said.
But Prof. Endmund Banwat, JUTH’s Chief Medical Director, told NAN that the situation was not as bad as was being painted.
“`To say that the hospital is almost shut down because of the Nurses rejection of shift duties, is a lie. As we speak, various surgeries are being carried out.
“Coordinators of Nursing units are working and have not joined their junior colleagues on the strike. They have filled a good part of the gap created by the Nurses’ absence.
“But, again, we will not pretend. It has not been easy. It is difficult working without the Nurses. Cases that require 24 hours attention are referred to other hospitals,” he said.
