Abuja hospitals discharge patients as nurses begin strike

Hospitals across the Federal Capital Territory were on Wednesday discharging their patients as nurses under the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, Federal Health Institutions Sector, began a seven-day warning strike.

The action, which commenced early Wednesday, reportedly forced many government hospitals in Abuja to either discharge patients or drastically scale down operations due to an acute shortage of nursing staff.

The union had on July 14, 2025, issued a 15-day ultimatum to the Federal Government, demanding immediate intervention to avert a total healthcare shutdown.

According to the National Chairman of NANNM-FHI, Morakinyo Rilwan, the Federal Government failed to act within the given timeframe.

Among the key demands of the nurses are the upward review of shift allowance, adjustment of uniform allowance, creation of a separate salary structure for nurses, increase in core duty allowance, mass employment of nurses, and the establishment of a nursing department within the Federal Ministry of Health, among others.

The nurses maintain that the ongoing warning strike is necessary to press home the demands.

According to PUNCH, there were slow medical services as patients waited for hours to be attended to at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja on Wednesday.

It added that long queues were observed at the General Out-Patient Department, Immunisation Section, Consultation Section, and Surgical Out-Patient Department.

Executives of NANNM were also present at the hospital to monitor compliance with the strike directive.

The situation was said to be the same in many public hospitals across the FCT.