Nurses at the Federal Medical Centre in Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Ogun State, demonstrated over their purported exclusion from the institution’s 2023 promotion process.
The nurses, who are affiliated with the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, also expressed their dissatisfaction with the hospital’s management.
The nurses described the situation as severe and requested that their basic rights as staff should be met immediately by the management.
The peaceful demonstrators carried placards with the some write-ups saying;
“Stop selective promotion”; “Nurses workload is enough for promotion”; “Nurses’ lives matter”; “Give us our promotion”; “Healthy workplace, healing spaces, nurses demand both”; “Improve nurses’ working environment”.
Olufimilola Adekunle, the chairman of the FMC Abeokuta bran of NANNM, said that reason for the demonstration was to get their promotional examination papers, that the hospital has claimed the nurses had failed.
He said;
“We are tired, we are really tired. Before we used to do three shifts but because of the shortage, we have to collapse it to two shifts.
“We have written to the management several times for remuneration for this long hours work we are doing but no response.
“The only thing we enjoyed from this management is this promotion and now our members were not beneficiaries. They said we failed, we want to see the script,” she insisted.
Head of Clinical Services of the hospital, Dr Kunle Adediran, mentioned that the issue regarding the promotion was beyond the management because the decision was taken by the Federal Ministry of Health.
