Death looms at University Teaching Hospital Calabar as 300 staff nurses embark on strike

                           

Patients at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital were left unattended to as the over 300 staff nurses, matrons and auxiliary nurses embarked on a three-day warning strike on Tuesday.

One of the leaders of the nurses at the hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were embarking on the strike basically because of backlog of unpaid salaries, better remuneration and promotion of newly engaged nurses over old ones.

“By this strike, we are only warning and drawing attention of management of this hospital and ministry of health in Abuja to our plight.

“We want them to immediately address the lingering issues on our monthly salaries as a result of the new pay system which has either de-listed some of our names from the pay roll or reduced our individual pay every month.

“Many of us have travelled several times to Abuja to regularise our names and salary records in the new pay system to no avail.

“We are also unhappy that fresh nurses from schools and newly employed ones are given higher grades and pay above us that have been in the system many years”, she said.

Some of the doctors complained that the nurses for locked up essential medical and surgical equipment.

“We can treat and dress our patients but they have locked up essential medical equipment”, he said.

Some of the patients have resorted to hiring nurses from outside to treat them or visit clinics outside.

“The nurses just returned our drugs to us and told us to take care of ourselves,” one of the patients said.