Nurses with the Ogun State Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta, joined by their colleagues mobilised from other parts of the state have on Thursday protested the alleged assault of a final-year student-nurse by a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Nurudeen Adekunle.
According to the Punch Newspaper, Adekunle, a staff member with the hospital, reportedly slapped the student-nurse at the theatre suit on September 24 and that all efforts made within that time and now to seek redress from the government had yielded no encouraging result.
The protesting nurses were led by the state Chairman of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, Adejoke Bello.
The nurses chanting various songs to drive home their grievances were also armed with placards bearing messages such as, “End bullying of nurses, “End nurses brutality, bullying of nurses is not acceptable, “Zero tolerance for nurses bullying, “Respect for nurses, Respect for care”, and “Justice for nurses, a must” among others.
Speaking with our correspondent, Bello said, “The peaceful demonstration is to register our
dissatisfaction and displeasure over an unethical practice of a consultant orthopaedic surgeon with the Ogun State Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta, Nurudeen Adekunle, who slapped a final-year student nurse precisely on September 24.
“This is an assault and against the public service rules. This should not have happened under whatever circumstances. It is gross misconduct for you to have slapped your subordinate at work. So, we are here to say that all the nurses in Ogun State won’t tolerate this.
“This ordinarily should not have degenerated to this level of protest but we have written to the appropriate quarters since last Monday and gave them 48 hours to address this unfortunate incident but we have heard nothing from them, especially the hospital management. They have not called us, so we are left with no choice but to mobilise for this peaceful protest.
“Our demand is that the culprit, Dr Adekunle Nurudeen, must be brought to justice according to the public service rules. We are saying no to the harassment and assault of nurses.
“We have told our nurses to go back to work but we have given the management four hours to get back to us in black and white just as we have equally done to register our dissatisfaction over the poor treatment.”
Similarly, the Unit Chairman of NANNM, State Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta, Lola Idowu Falujo, also condemned the action of Adekunle saying that it fell below the provisions of the public service rules.
Falujo said, “We are out to end bullying of nurses, we are saying no to all forms of assault against nurses. We are doing our best in this hospital to care for our patients and move the state and country forward. So, we don’t deserve any form of maltreatment.
“We condemned the action of Adekunle who assaulted one of our student nurses and was even threatening him saying that if he heard anything about the incident outside, he would ensure that the student wouldn’t graduate.
“We wrote to the management of the hospital and the government since Friday but we have heard nothing. Maybe, if they had decided to get back to us, there might not have been the need for this peaceful protest.
“This is unacceptable and we are saying that bullying of nurses must stop. We therefore want the government to activate the state public service rules to handle this matter and ensure that justice is served”.
The Permanent Secretary, Hospital Management Board, Dr Olayinka Elemide, who came to address the protesting nurses, said that the government was aware of the situation and already taking steps to address the incident.
Elemide said, “The government is aware of this situation and already taking steps to ensure that due process is followed. The doctor and the student nurse are both in the care of the government. So, we are on top of the situation.”
