Adamawa health sector suffers neglect – Nurses

Adamawa State government has centralized the administration of primary health care after establishing the Primary Health Care Agency (PHCA). How has that affected nurses? The issue of PHCA in Adamawa State is a welcome idea looking at the Primary Health care system under the local government. Now the staff are harnessed by the agency, things […]

Adamawa State government has centralized the administration of primary health care after establishing the Primary Health Care Agency (PHCA). How has that affected nurses?

The issue of PHCA in Adamawa State is a welcome idea looking at the Primary Health care system under the local government. Now the staff are harnessed by the agency, things are getting better. The cost is too much; salary wise and training wise, it is too much for the local government to carry. Now, thank God we have an agency which is trying to unify the system so that a holistic approach can be given to primary health issues.
Payment in salaries is fair now. What is happening is that the junior staff are not enjoying the current [consolidated health salary structure] CONHESS: that is why there are complaints but the senior staff are enjoying the new salary.

There are complaints about manpower shortages in the health sector. How is that problem affecting health service delivery to communities in Adamawa?
Lack of staff is nationwide. Here in Adamawa it is not only primary health centres that are affected. If you go to our hospitals today, you see one nurse running the shift from morning to evening and then another one from evening till morning. They are having two shifts instead of three. You go to another hospital during weekends, you find a single nurse overseeing the hospital.
We are aware government is recruiting.  Our problem with recruitment is payment of salaries. These people are recruited and are not paid when due. You cannot work for three, four, five months without salary. It is unacceptable, where would they get money to feed themselves. You will be posted to a far place and you are not paid salaries.
This is unacceptable, we are soliciting government to look at this issue if they want the health system to be vibrant.

Maternal mortality rate is high in Adamawa. Are you satisfied with the way the state government is handling the issue?
We thank the federal government for establishing the Midwifery Commission which is now on ground. The federal government also recruited retired midwives to work in the rural areas so that the problem of maternal deaths at the grassroots can be reduced drastically, but the problem is that the federal government would give its own counterpart funding, the state and local governments would not give, so this programme is being truncated. The state government is supposed to embrace the midwives scheme. Some state governments are not supporting the scheme. Local governments are worst. In other areas down south these retired midwives are paid more than the salaries they received before. They are motivated and they appreciate what the government is doing for them so, they put in their best.

Nyako administration in the state has rolled out a free medical care programme for pregnant women  and children under the age of five. How would you assess the success of the programme?
We thank God our governor was able to give free medical care for children under five years of age and women in maternity as well as accident and emergency patients. The issue is not a matter of free. But are the drugs there? If there are no drugs available then there is no need for free. What is free there? Nothing.
The medical personnel on duty will write for the patients and ask them to go and buy. Problem arises because government says it is free. People would say you sell the drugs but that is not true, we give what government brings to us, we don’t manufacture drugs. Let there be drugs for the pregnant women and children under five. The delivery pack, let it be intact, everything inside so that no sick person will be asked to buy iodine or scissors. We are thankful for the programme but we want government to look at the issue and increase the energy on this free drugs issue.
Another issue I want to talk about is the issue of motivation in the health sector. We in the joint health sector union appreciate what the government is doing. If you have five or 10 children, you should try to carry all of them along to make them feel they are the same to you but government has sidelined nurses and other health workers.  
CONMESS was paid to medical doctors leaving the other part, but we are in the same industry. After all nurses and other health personnel do more work than the doctors.
Motivation is very important. We have written to the government on the issue and we await their response. We are not saying we are going on strike but if we are pushed to the wall we know what to do. We are aware that our two months’ salary is still outstanding because of strike. And I know other health workers in the state can be ready to go on strike if government refuses to pay us. It is a simple issue, you divide your children, you choose one and tell others ‘I don’t like you’. Medical doctors were on a similar strike actions but their salary was never withheld.
If you go the hospitals instruments are lacking, it is one of the issues on which government took the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to court and NLC won the case at the Industrial Court but implementation has become a problem. If you go to our hospitals, no instruments, no consumables, the little given to hospitals is what they use to buy disinfectants and detergents for the wards.

What is your appeal to government?
If government wants to give priority to the health sector, they should look at these issues and address them holistically.  Go to the psychiatric unit of the specialists hospitals; the place is not ideal for human beings. This is the hospital’s psychiatric unit where we keep patients. We tried to make government see the importance of renovating the place, until today government has not listened. Government is yet to make pronouncement for restructuring that place. The building is completely inhabitable for human beings. I hope you will go and see.

From Kabiru R. Anwar, Yola

Adamawa State government has centralized the administration of primary health care after establishing the Primary Health Care Agency (PHCA). How has that affected nurses?

The issue of PHCA in Adamawa State is a welcome idea looking at the Primary Health care system under the local government. Now the staff are harnessed by the agency, things are getting better. The cost is too much; salary wise and training wise, it is too much for the local government to carry. Now, thank God we have an agency which is trying to unify the system so that a holistic approach can be given to primary health issues.
Payment in salaries is fair now. What is happening is that the junior staff are not enjoying the current [consolidated health salary structure] CONHESS: that is why there are complaints but the senior staff are enjoying the new salary.

There are complaints about manpower shortages in the health sector. How is that problem affecting health service delivery to communities in Adamawa?
Lack of staff is nationwide. Here in Adamawa it is not only primary health centres that are affected. If you go to our hospitals today, you see one nurse running the shift from morning to evening and then another one from evening till morning. They are having two shifts instead of three. You go to another hospital during weekends, you find a single nurse overseeing the hospital.
We are aware government is recruiting.  Our problem with recruitment is payment of salaries. These people are recruited and are not paid when due. You cannot work for three, four, five months without salary. It is unacceptable, where would they get money to feed themselves. You will be posted to a far place and you are not paid salaries.
This is unacceptable, we are soliciting government to look at this issue if they want the health system to be vibrant.

Maternal mortality rate is high in Adamawa. Are you satisfied with the way the state government is handling the issue?
We thank the federal government for establishing the Midwifery Commission which is now on ground. The federal government also recruited retired midwives to work in the rural areas so that the problem of maternal deaths at the grassroots can be reduced drastically, but the problem is that the federal government would give its own counterpart funding, the state and local governments would not give, so this programme is being truncated. The state government is supposed to embrace the midwives scheme. Some state governments are not supporting the scheme. Local governments are worst. In other areas down south these retired midwives are paid more than the salaries they received before. They are motivated and they appreciate what the government is doing for them so, they put in their best.

Nyako administration in the state has rolled out a free medical care programme for pregnant women  and children under the age of five. How would you assess the success of the programme?
We thank God our governor was able to give free medical care for children under five years of age and women in maternity as well as accident and emergency patients. The issue is not a matter of free. But are the drugs there? If there are no drugs available then there is no need for free. What is free there? Nothing.
The medical personnel on duty will write for the patients and ask them to go and buy. Problem arises because government says it is free. People would say you sell the drugs but that is not true, we give what government brings to us, we don’t manufacture drugs. Let there be drugs for the pregnant women and children under five. The delivery pack, let it be intact, everything inside so that no sick person will be asked to buy iodine or scissors. We are thankful for the programme but we want government to look at the issue and increase the energy on this free drugs issue.
Another issue I want to talk about is the issue of motivation in the health sector. We in the joint health sector union appreciate what the government is doing. If you have five or 10 children, you should try to carry all of them along to make them feel they are the same to you but government has sidelined nurses and other health workers.  
CONMESS was paid to medical doctors leaving the other part, but we are in the same industry. After all nurses and other health personnel do more work than the doctors.
Motivation is very important. We have written to the government on the issue and we await their response. We are not saying we are going on strike but if we are pushed to the wall we know what to do. We are aware that our two months’ salary is still outstanding because of strike. And I know other health workers in the state can be ready to go on strike if government refuses to pay us. It is a simple issue, you divide your children, you choose one and tell others ‘I don’t like you’. Medical doctors were on a similar strike actions but their salary was never withheld.
If you go the hospitals instruments are lacking, it is one of the issues on which government took the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to court and NLC won the case at the Industrial Court but implementation has become a problem. If you go to our hospitals, no instruments, no consumables, the little given to hospitals is what they use to buy disinfectants and detergents for the wards.

What is your appeal to government?
If government wants to give priority to the health sector, they should look at these issues and address them holistically.  Go to the psychiatric unit of the specialists hospitals; the place is not ideal for human beings. This is the hospital’s psychiatric unit where we keep patients. We tried to make government see the importance of renovating the place, until today government has not listened. Government is yet to make pronouncement for restructuring that place. The building is completely inhabitable for human beings. I hope you will go and see.