The National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) has called on the 36 State governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to implement the 25 per cent upward review of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure and hazard allowance.
The NANNM also called on Sate governments to implement revised call duty allowance in their respective civil services for nurses and expedite actions in the implementation of the CONHESS to encourage nurses to stay back in the country to render services to the people.
The association’s appeal is contained in a communique issued on Sunday at the end of its two-day National Executive Council quarterly meeting in Abuja.
President Bola Tinubu, in July last year, approved the review of CONHESS for health workers in the Federal Public Service to tackle brain drain and guarantee industrial harmony.
CONHESS is a salary structure for pharmacists, medical laboratories, nurses, and other health workers in the health sector of the Federal Public Service.
Nigeria has been battling with the increasing exodus of healthcare professionals, especially doctors, pharmacists, and nurses, to developed countries.
Part of the communiqué read: “The NEC-in-session frowned at the non-implementation of an enhanced salary structure for nurses in the country among other issues ranging from the establishment of departments of nursing services in the Federal Ministry of Health raised by the association to the government in different platforms and offices.
“The NEC, therefore, appealed to the Federal government to urgently look at these issues to forestall industrial disharmony.
“NEC in session lauded the federal government on the approval for the engagement of health fellows in the primary health centers across the 774 local government areas of the federation and called for the inclusion of nurses and midwives in the programme as the main stakeholders and generators of data in such facilities.”
