Fight for rights: Health department bows down before nursing staff

K-P health minister assures fulfilment of demands following a three-day protest.

PESHAWAR/ABBOTTABAD:

In the latest wave of protests, taking their cue from the successful struggle of young doctors in Punjab, nurses in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) took to the streets to fight for their rights, leaving the health department with no option but to fulfil their demands.

Following a successful three-day struggle, the health department, K-P Health Minister Zahir Ali Shah held talks with the office bearers of the nursing staff and agreed to fulfil their demands.

Nursing Staff Association President Farrukh Jalil told The Express Tribune that they had been demanding their rights since a long period of time but their requests were constantly ignored by the concerned authorities, forcing the nurses to launch a protest for their demands.

“Our demands were totally genuine. We want service structures and salaries similar for nurses in Punjab. Even though nurses work for more hours than doctors, the government has been neglecting them,” he said.

According to Farrukh, about 4,000 nurses are providing health care services in the province, out of whom 1,600 are serving in hospitals in Peshawar.

On December 12, the nursing staff of Lady Reading Hospital had launched a protest to pressurise the government to accede to their demands.

K-P Special Health Secretary Noorul Iman, when contacted, said, “The minister has given an assurance that their demands will be met by March 2012.” The government has also planned several welfare projects for nurses. “Currently around 450 nurses are pursuing BSc in nursing for which we have allocated Rs700 million. Now we are also planning to send nurses to the UK for MSc,” he added.

Earlier, on Wednesday, nursing students had blocked Karakoram Highway for the seventh day to protest a three-month delay in disbursement of their stipend and suspension of mess service. They were boycotting their classes and routine duties at the Ayub Medical Complex (AMC). They had also accused the school principal of threatening them of dire consequences including failing them in their annual exams and rusticating them from the school.

In other provinces, nursing students are paid Rs7,500 monthly for 8 hours but they were forced to work for 12 hours for Rs3,500, according to the students.

Chief Executive AMC Dr Ziaur Rehman has issued directives for disbursement of two months stipend to all students and restoration of mess service.

With additional reporting by muhammad sadaqat

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2011.