Go back to work, govt begs 

 

Nurses working with Delta State Hospital Management Board have embarked on an indefinite strike action over shortage of manpower and promotion arrears, among other issues. The nurses, who commenced the strike action Saturday midnight, lamented that their members were being retired from service without replacement. 

 

One of the nurses who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that hospitals in the state do not have the required manpower in the nursing section thereby making the work load on the few available nurses unbearable. 

 

Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Nicholas Azinge, has appealed to well meaning Deltans to prevail on the striking nurses in the state to embrace dialogue and return to work. Azinge, in a statement by the Public Relations Officer, PRO, of the Ministry, Mr Donald Ojebo, said: “Dialogue remains the only viable option for conflict resolution in a democratic setting like ours.” 

 

He called on the striking nurses to return to the dialogue table and take advantage of the state government’s open door policy in resolving the industrial dispute. Lamenting the difficulties patients would experience in the hospitals as a result of the strike, Azinge explained that doctors and other medical workers were still at their duty posts.

 

The Federal Medical Center Asaba is currently also on strike from non payment of salaries to nurses