The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), has alleged that it lost four of its members within six months, allegedly due to stress from work overload.

Chairman of the Association in UPTH, MacDonald Uchendu, who made this claim said the deceased medical officers were Chief Nursing Officers and within the ages of 48 and 56 years.

She complained that the hospital is understaffed while urging the management to recruit more nurses.

An investigation carried out by newsmen showed that in a recent memo by the management to all heads of departments, ad-hoc staff who were initially engaged and we’re being paid through the Internally Generated Revenue of the hospital have been asked to stop work.

A senior doctor who want to remain anonymous lamented that the planned disengagement of Ad-hoc Staff would immensely add to the overbearing workloads on the Doctors and Nurses.

He said that the UPTH management had engaged the ad-hoc staff as a temporary stopgap to relieve the staff of workloads because of the increasing number of patients seeking for services in the hospital.

It was learnt that the directive for the disengagement of the ad-hoc workers was based on directive from the Federal Ministry of Health with the aim of ensuring financial prudence in Federal Teaching Hospitals.