Seniority versus meritocracy: Nurses reject new service rules announced by govt

Say regulation made in 2011 has been improved, be implemented immediately


Our Correspondent May 16, 2016
Jalil said while doctors’ community had availed health professional allowance, nurses must also be awarded similar benefits by the government. PHOTO: NNI

PESHAWAR: Nurses in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have rejected new service rules that were announced recently, and urged the provincial government to review them in the best interest of the health sector.

Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Monday, Provincial Nurses Association President Farrukh Jalil said the provincial government had recently issued service rules through a notification on May 12. “It was announced without proper consultation with nurses and other relevant stakeholders,” Jalil said. “This subsequently created unrest among nursing staff across the province.”

According to service rules, high qualification has been made a prerequisite for upgradation of a nurse to head nurse, equivalent to grade BPS-17. The association president said previously, a nurse was promoted to grade-17 as head nurse on the basis of seniority.

Jalil added nurses who had spent over three decades serving, will fail to get promoted, while tutor nurses will reap benefits. “Education is very important, but seniority cannot be underestimated,” he said.

Jalil added while doctors’ community had availed health professional allowance, nurses must also be awarded similar benefits by the government.

The nurses said instead of making new rules, service rules 2011 should be passed immediately and implemented across the province. They said this was because tremendous work had already been done to improve them.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17th, 2016.

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