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Nurses in Nigeria on the platform of the Association of General Private Nursing Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPNPN) have called for the establishment of a Bank of Health like in some other sectors to ease accessibility to healthcare by Nigerians.

They promised to collaborate with other stakeholders in the health sector to fight quackery in the nursing profession.

The National President of the association, Balogun Ajiboye, made the call on Tuesday at the opening session of the association's 12th AGM/Annual Scientific Conference in Benin City.

He cautioned his members from being part of those training people outside conventional schools and calling them auxiliary nurses.

"Nursing is a profession and for anybody to practice nursing in Nigeria, he or she must be trained in an institution approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), he or she must also pass the prescribed examinations and be licensed by the council.

"Quackery in nursing has created an image dent in the profession. Quackery activities have sent many Nigerians to their early graves, it is like a cancerous tissue in the body that needs to be cut off immediately I am therefore calling on all agencies involved in the eradication of quackery to double their efforts in stamping out quackery, there must be a collaboration with NMCN and Directors of Nursing Services of all the states who are the supervisory authority, they are like governors of the Nursing and Midwifery Council but I am afraid if they are doing their works as expected.

"The current statistics say that 70 per cent of Nigerians access health facilities through the private sector which means that less than 30 per cent access health through government facilities and ironically, government spend all their facilities on these 30 per cent yet that is not a pass mark. In view of this, we appeal to governments at all levels to create access to finance for private practitioners and we solicit for the establishment of a Bank of Health; we have the Bank of Industry, we have the Bank of Agriculture yet we say health is wealth but why are they not giving health the priority it deserves", Ajiboye said.

In her speech, Edo State Director of Nursing Sciences, Mrs Patricia Osazuwa, said the state government was committed to stopping quackery in the nursing profession in the state and advised members of the association to stop the training of auxiliary nurses using their facilities, adding that such practice was encouraging others in the health sector to train unqualified nurses.

On her part, the State chairman of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Mrs Catherine Omonigho Eseine, said there was a need for the state government to strengthen the laws that would help for the proper prosecution of quacks and those involved in their training.

Declaring the session open, the chairman on the occasion, Dr Francis Eremutha, represented by the Head of Department, Nursing, Edo State College of Nursing Sciences, Charles Ogbeide, said the use of the title auxiliary nurse is promoting quackery in the profession.

 Source: The Sun Newspaper