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National President of the Association of General Private Nursing Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPNPN), Prince Balogun Ajiboye has observed that insecurity is becoming a serious burden to private nurses from operating in the country.
He made their position known at the 13th Annual National Scientific Conference of the association held at StoneHedge Hotel, Kaduna on Tuesday.
Ajiboye noted further; “We all know that it is only the healthy living that can take care of others. So we have to be alive before we can be a nurse.
“Therefore, I want to use this opportunity to strongly appeal to the government at all levels to be more transparent in dealing with the situation on ground”.
The national president disclosed that the current statistics say that over 70 percent of Nigerians access healthcare through private facilities, saying, this means less than 30 percent access healthcare through public facilities.
“Worst hit are the poor citizens who are always coming to private facilities to ask for favour. We are always trying our best because with the present economic reality of fuel subsidy removal and deregulation of the currency, you can imagine how the poor citizens are passing through.”
He observed if nothing is done urgently universal health coverage in Nigeria will be a mirage.
The National President also took a swipe at quackery as one of the factors affecting nursing in the country, saying, one of the recent cases was the death of music icon Mohbad which has brought the profession to ridicule.
However, he was quick to add that his association has been warning its members about the dangers of training quacks.
“Therefore, I am using this opportunity to appeal to all agencies involved in the eradication of quackery to double in stamping out the menace.”
Speaking on the theme: “Nursing and Healthcare Space: Strengthening the Relationship to Improve Public Health”, the guest speaker, Professor Saleh Ngaski called for collaboration among health professionals in the health space.
He noted that every part of the health space is as important as the other, saying no one is superior to the other.
