Following the warning by nurses for the Federal Government to be careful in meeting the demands of the doctors so as not to complicate or worsen the situation in the health sector, which they said may be uncontrollable, the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, has advised the nurses to be patient for the government to reach an amicable resolution with the NMA before thinking of the next line of action.

Chukwu, who was fielding questions from Sunday Independent, said, “The nurses should be patient to see the outcome of our negotiation with the NMA.

“I assure you that all parties will be happy at the end of the day. What we are after is to bring lasting peace to the health. They should be patient.

“I believe very soon we will see the end of this recurrent strike in the health sector.

“I appeal for all cooperate and support the government in its effort to provide affordable and qualitative health services to the people.”

Meanwhile, there are indications that the strike currently being embarked upon by the medical and dental practitioners under the umbrella of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), may have caused a sharp division among nurses in the country.

The division became more prominent a few days ago, when the General Secretary of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Yusuf Badmus, in a statement, advised patients to attend and patronise government hospitals despite the fact that doctors were not on ground to attend to them.

Some of the nurses who volunteered to aired their feelings to Sunday Independent in Abuja, described the advise by badmus as “suicidal and with deadly repercussion to the patients.”

A nurse at the National Hospital, Abuja, who pleaded anonymity, said that the advice by the NANNM leadership was “self glorifying and high level pretence”.

“I do not agree with the call by our leadership that patients should come to the hospital regardless of the strike being embarked upon by doctors.

“It is unfortunate that some nurses want to arrogate to themselves the role of doctors.

“Let us not pretend to do what is not our own. There is a difference between our training and that of doctors and there is a limit that a nurse can attend to a patient, especially at the tertiary healthcare level like our own here,” a senior nursing staff at the National Hospital, Abuja, who pleaded to be anonymous told Sunday Independent.