The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) chapter, has directed its members working at the hospital’s isolation centre to stay off work over alleged negligence of their welfare and lack of safety.
Chairman of the chapter, Mrs. Mercy Lenka, who addressed journalists on Monday during a protest in Jos by the nurses, said that the order became necessary as members were risking their lives and that of their families working under difficult conditions at the centre.
Lenka stated that the standard practice in other parts of Nigeria and the world was for special accommodation to be provided for the nurses while caring for COVID-19 patients, and not for them to be living with their families.
She also lamented the lack of a special room for suspected cases at the hospital, saying that only an area screened off with clothing material was available for the suspected cases at the casualty unit.
She equally decried the lack of incentives, insurance and hazard allowances for the nurses at the isolation centre.
She spoke further: “Our members and other patients are at risk of getting infected with the disease at the unit.
“Particularly, we are taking this action because a patient was managed in the ward and it turned out that he became a suspected patient and the result turned out to be positive.
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“All the people who nursed this patient were tested because of the exposure and then a nurse working at the centre tested positive.
“We raised an eyebrow when we saw the temporary arrangement made by the hospital for suspected cases, which was just a cloth demarcation at the casualty unit.
“We also called the attention of the infectious unit of the hospital, but they said the patients will not be kept for up to two hours there for their samples to be taken.
“It will interest you to know that a patient has been there since Friday, while a patient was brought last night presenting classical symptoms of COVID-19, yet his samples are yet to be taken.
“This is a risk to other patients at that unit and the nurses there who do not have Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).’’
She insisted that nurses at the centre would only return to duty if they were provided with accommodation, incentives and hazard allowances, threatening that failure to provide a special room for suspected cases awaiting results may warrant a total strike by nurses in the hospital.
She also said nurses at the centre must be tested before they resume as some may be positive and will go back to put their families at risk.
