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Even as the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) enforces its indefinite strike across the country, critical units at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) in Makurdi are refusing to shut down completely.
Patients continue to receive attention in the VIP Clinic, Isolation Ward, and Accident & Emergency departments, with skeletal services running round the clock. Videos circulating on social media show nurses and support staff attending to long queues of patients in these essential areas, while most other wards remain largely deserted.
The development has sparked mixed reactions. While many patients and their relatives have expressed relief that life-saving services have not been totally grounded, others see it as a direct challenge to the union’s directive and a sign of internal divisions within the Benue State chapter.
Sources within the hospital say the decision to maintain skeletal services in critical units was taken to prevent preventable deaths, especially in the A&E and isolation wards where cholera and Lassa fever cases are still being managed. “We cannot watch people die because of strike,” one nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity told our correspondent.
The nationwide strike, which entered its second week, is aimed at pressing home demands for better welfare, improved staffing, and the implementation of agreed allowances. However, the partial compliance in BSUTH has raised questions about the unity of the state chapter and whether the national body will sanction members who continue to work.
For now, the gates of the VIP Clinic and A&E remain open, oxygen cylinders are still being wheeled in, and emergency surgeries are going ahead. In a state that has seen its fair share of hardship, the determination to keep these lifeline units running has become the one bright spot in an otherwise tense industrial action.
