Catherine Eseine, chairman, Edo state council of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) on Wednesday narrated how fake professionals truncated efforts made by the body to sanitise the profession in the state.
Eseine, who spoke to newsmen during a rally as part of activities to mark 2020, year of the Nurses and Midwives in honor of the 200th birthday anniversary of the mother of the profession, Florence Nightingale in Benin City, said several efforts have been made to stem the activities of quack nurses in the state.
She said the programme with the theme, “Quality healthcare for Edo populace” is being organised by Edo state nurses in conjunction with the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to her, medical quackery remains a burden and continues to hamper quality healthcare in the state despite great amount of efforts by relevant stakeholders to curb the menace.
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“There have been so many measures put in place to address quackery but because of inadequate legislations some of them do not yield the desired results.
“From time to time, we go out, visit private hospitals and we see a lot of things going on. Somebody who is not a nurse or doctor will open a clinic and perform surgery. So, anytime we find out such, we don’t hesitate to close down the place.
“But what we discovered is that, whenever we close down such health facility, some of the nurses relocate to other areas. And because of lack of manpower, we cannot really go round to be able to track down the perpetrators”, she said.
While decrying the alarming rate of quackery in the health sector, she however, urged the nurses to stand up to their responsibilities.
She noted that nursing is one of the professions bedeviled with quackery, and that ” any person can claim to be a nurse and that has affected it.
She identified inadequate legislations, lack of manpower as factors hindering the check of unlicensed individuals in medical practice.
She, however, called on medical personnel to uphold the tenets of the profession in a bid to provide robust healthcare delivery to the nation.
In his remarks, Director of Nursing Services (DNS), Edo state, Alex Enunwaonye said the sensitisation rally is aimed at championing healthcare for people to attend Ante-natal care, use insecticide-treated nets, immunization, regular medical check-up as well as shun quacks.
She said the three-day programme will also be launching the #NursingNow, an advocacy body trying to bring nurses to the limelight.
Also speaking, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki reiterated his administration’s commitment to the training and retraining of healthcare professionals across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state and continuous sensitisation of people on the need to seek for medical care from qualified and licensed healthcare professionals.
Obaseki represented by the Commissioner for Health, Patrick Okundia, charged critical stakeholders in the health sector to rededicate themselves to the service of humanity.
He noted that all hands must be on deck to ensure that everybody has access to quality healthcare services without the challenges of traveling abroad.
