Nurses of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital Calabar, UCTH, on Tuesday came out in their numbers to protest the arrest of three of their colleagues by operatives of the Nigerian police.
Their arrests followed the death of a patient in the hospital facility without the nurse recording the data of the deceased.
Gate of the UCTH was barricaded by the nurses who stormed out en mass halting vehicular movement into and out of the hospital.
Truthlive News learnt that the three nurses were arrested by the police over failure to provide information about a deceased patient, an act the police described as negligence of duty.
At least, 200 nurses came out and blocked the entrance to the hospital preventing visitors from accessing the facility.
Recounting the incident that led to the arrest, one of the protesting nurses, who pleaded anonymity, said: “A patient was brought into the hospital by a Good Samaritan and made some payments for his treatment before leaving.
“Unfortunately, the patient died before it was dawn and relatives of the patient stormed the facility upon hearing that their relative, who was on admission in our facility had died and they discovered that the deceased’s SIM card was missing.
“The family members demanded that the nurses provide the missing card or details of the Good Samaritan be provided.
“When they discovered that the nurses were unable to give useful information to that effect, they ran to the police, who stormed the hospital and arrested three nurses, who attended to the deceased.”
The nurses also marched to the Command Headquarters of the Cross River State Police, to demand the unconditional release of their colleagues.
The protest disrupted medical activities at the hospital as some patients were locked out and efforts to speak with the management were also futile.
Contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo, blamed the nurses on duty for negligence.
“How can trained nurses admit a patient into the hospital facility without taking data from the Good Samaritan, who brought the patient into the hospital, it’s unethical,” Ugbo queried.
Truthlive News gathered that she, however, told Vanguard that the Commissioner of Police had instructed that the arrested nurses be released immediately.