Photo: Group photograph of the Nurses’ team with the Commissioner for Health Dr. Ben Afam Obidike
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Doctors and nurses in Anambra State have strengthened ties and synergy for better healthcare services in the state.
This new collaboration and friendship was made manifest at the recent novelty football match between the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) Anambra State Council and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Anambra State Chapter held at the new Awka Township Stadium.
The novelty football match which was devoid of injuries and rough tackles was a clear portrayal of the new relationship between doctors and nurses which would be replicated in the quality of healthcare services in hospitals.
Speaking on the friendly football match between nurses and doctors, the State Chairman of National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives in Anambra, Comrade Edith Onwuka, said doctors were close associates of the nurses and that the novelty football match signified more mutual understanding, adding that they would continue to collaborate to make healthcare services superb in the state.
Onwuka also stated that if NMA and NANNM work together, they would deliver more quality healthcare services to the people. She maintained that the main focus was quality healthcare delivery to Ndi-Anambra which she said can not be compromised for any reason whatsoever.
She said the novelty football game between doctors and nurses was to show that both of them were committed to working with one another as team to making Anambra a healthy state to live in.
Onwuka said the novelty football match was a good development and first of its kind.
Also the Deputy General Secretary of NANNM who equally doubled as the State Secretary of NANNM in Anambra, Dr. Ikedi Onah, said the theme of the 2023 International Nurses’Week ” Our nurses, our future ” could also be interpreted to mean our doctors our future because doctors and nurses, according to him, were two critical personnel in the hospital especially in the layman’s understanding.
Onah explained that the novelty football match has helped to reinforce the relationship between doctors and nurses; that if they love one another and begin to work together as a formidable team and end unnecessary rivalry, there would a good health sector not only in Anambra State or Nigeria but the world at large.
Furthermore, the Chairman Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital Chapter of the Nurses’ Association and captain of the nurses team, Mr. Ndibe Vincent Chinedu, said they played the novelty match because they want a continued relationship with doctors.
Ndibe said apart from being a friendly game, the novelty football match was another way to exercise the body because exercise according to him, was a way of encouraging and promoting healthy living in the state.
Also the skipper of the doctors’ team, Valentine Somtochukwu Okonkwo, described the novelty football match as a peace communication between doctors and nurses; showing how they can cooperate with one another to foster a formidable health sector in the state.
Highlight of the novelty football match between NANNM and NMA was the ceremonial kickoff by the Anambra State Commissioner for Health Dr. Ben Afam Obidike while the match ended in favour of the nurses beating doctors 5 goals to 3 at the new Awka Township Stadium.
