Delta appeals to striking nurses to suspend action

The Delta State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Nicholas Azinge has appealed to striking nurses in government owned hospitals to embrace dialogue, suspend their one-week-old industrial action and return to work.

In a statement in Asaba by the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health, Mr Donald Ojebo, Azinge said that dialogue remains the only viable option for conflict resolution in a democratic setting.

Nurses working with the Delta State Hospital Management Board, (HMB), had on December 30 last year embarked on indefinite strike action over shortage of manpower, promotion arrears among other issues.

One of the Nurses who spoke on the condition of anonymity lamented that they were being retired from service without replacement, noting that hospitals do not have required manpower in the Nursing section thereby making the workload on the few available nurses unbearable.

The Commissioner however called on the striking nurses to return to the dialogue table and take advantage of the State government’s open door policy of resolving industrial disputes.

While lamenting the difficulties patients would experience in the hospitals due to the strike action, Azinge explained that doctors and other medical workers were still on their duty post.