The nurses say they were promised reimbursement as £75m has been set aside for the renovation of parliament buildings.
The Nigerian government’s plans to reduce spending on fitness threaten to undermine the country’s reaction to the coronavirus and severely affect already overburdened services, fitness equipment and transparency.
Funding for local number one physical care will be reduced by more than 40 percent this year in a revised budget expected to be followed in the coming weeks.
The proposed cuts may be limited to immunizations, child care, maternal health care and family circle planning services.
Nigeria has recently spent less than five percent of its federal budget on health. Lower oil sales, falling global oil costs and the effect of the coronavirus pandemic would be the reason for the cuts.
Professor Innocent Ujah, director of the Nigerian Medical Association, the proposed cuts came at a time when more investment in health is needed.
“Our fitness budget is unacceptably low, less than 5%. With the covid-19 pandemic, it becomes even more serious,” he said. “This will have an effect on our reaction to the virus. “
Ujah said he was surprised by the announcement of the cuts, as it had been assumed that fitness budgets would be protected against the pandemic.
The 37 billion naira (£75 million) set aside for the renovation of Nigeria’s National Assembly buildings has fuelled complaints about cuts in health care.
“Any renovation they need to do in the National Assembly is suspended,” Ujah said. “This is a global emergency. “
The legislature is heavily criticized in Nigeria for the lack of transparency in public spending and for the high salaries of legislators.
Oluseun Onigbinde, director of BudgIT, an organization that tracks government spending, said the budget cuts were not distributed lightly.
“The budget of the National Assembly has been cut by 10 percent, serious cuts have been made in education and health,” he said.
“It is a bit shameful that Nigeria’s allocation for fitness and education has not exceeded 5% of the overall budget over the past five years. The government has not invested enough in fitness care.
Nigeria’s government has taken the first steps to try to involve the Covid-19 outbreak, but cases are surging, doubling in the past three weeks to 12,000 infections.
A number of demanding situations have undermined its control and traceability strategy, adding very few control kits. Only 80,000 checks have been administered, less than the country’s government of suitability wants.
The Nigerian Center for Disease Control said 75% of infections occur in communities with no identifiable trace.
In addition to the challenges, there is with morale among some fitness workers.
Fifty doctors and nurses at a key COVID-19 reaction centre at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital say they have not been reimbursed as promised to staff who have been treating coronavirus cases since April. Allowances are paid in addition to their same previous salaries.
Staff speaking on condition of anonymity said the delay in collecting allowances made it difficult to recruit fitness professionals to fight the virus.
“We have relied on bills for the Covid response. We started in April, but we are in the 3rd month and we have not been compensated,” one member said.
Many had not noticed their families for 3 months to prevent the spread of the virus and were furious that their bills were not prioritized.
“We have risked our lives here, now that we are paid it is inhumane,” the fitness employee said.
Government officials said they were rushing to deal with late payments.
“They trusted us that they were working with this, but such disorders cause a lot of disappointment,” Ujah said. “Anyway, in a medical emergency, motivation is a very important element. “