Nursing students in Abbottabad threaten protest

Officials say procedural delays have been resolved, stipends to resume from next month

ABBOTTABAD: Female students of the Abbottabad Nursing School have threatened to stage a protest over delays in receiving their monthly stipends.

Stipends for the nursing students were suspended in November last year.

Some of the aggrieved nurses told the media that in line with their admission contract, around 50 students enrolled at the Abbottabad’s District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Nursing School were being paid Rs5,000 as a monthly stipend by the Provincial Health Services Academy (PHSA) till November 2016.



“We were expecting that the PHSA would clear our dues by January 2017, as some our seniors had assured us, but it failed even though the provincial government revised our monthly stipend from Rs5,000 to Rs20,000 per month,” said one of the nurses while requesting that her name is not disclosed for fear of reprisal.  With stipends stalled for the past eight-months, the nurse said that she and other students were now facing financial difficulties with some considering leaving the profession.

“It is really difficult for us to manage our travel expenses, especially when we set out to visit our families over the weekends since we have little to no money left,” another student nurse complained, adding that the concerned authorities seem to be least bothered about the difficulties faced by the students.

Even as the students announced plans for a protest, they did not disclose a schedule for the demonstrations.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2017.