National Association of Nurses and Mid-wife, Lagos State Council has raised concerns over the continuous shortage of nurses and mid-wife in the State owned hospitals.
Mrs. Olatunde Olusola, the chairman of the National Association of Nurses and Mid-wife, Lagos State Council who disclosed this in an interview added that if this development isn’t addressed, the dearth of nurses in the state owned hospitals will become worst.
Olusola lamented that the acute shortage in manpower is affecting the healthcare delivery in the state, saying “We form the largest party of the healthcare delivery in the country and that was why in any hospital without nurses and mid-wife, there will be no service; It has portrayed the nurses in the state owned hospitals in bad light.”
According to her, “More so, the government has increased the number of Primary Healthcare Centres, PHCs and Maternal and Child Healthcare Center, MCC in the state without employing the required number of nurses to deliver the required service.
“Rather than employ, the government will remove nurses from the shortage areas leaving healthcare delivery to suffer. This is actually affecting healthcare delivery in the state. You cannot deliver what you don’t have. If we are operating in a conducive environment then we will be happy render the best service to the patients,” she added.
Even with the dearth of nurses in the state-owned hospitals, she said “Not less than 200 experienced nurses from the Lagos State general hospitals will retire this year. And they that cannot be replaced over night.”
On how to address this shortage, Olusola said; “We expect the Lagos State government to employ 600 young nurses to replace this huge number that will retire from the state healthcare sector.”
She noted that the number would serve as replacement for the experienced nurses that would be retiring from the service at the end of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment