Nurses to boycott all hospitals in Sindh and start protest from Monday

KARACHI: Joint Nurses Action Committee (JNAC) has announced boycott of all departments of hospitals except emergency, ICUs and hold sit-in at the Karachi Press Club until their 10 demands are not accepted in letter and spirit.

This announced was made at an urgent press conference convened at the OPD block of National Institute of Child Health (NICH) here on Saturday.

 This Joint Nurses Action Committee is comprised of leadership of Young Nurses Association, Pakistan Nurses Association and Private School Nursing Association to voice for their rights.

 Leaders of this committee including Afshan Nazli, Ghulam Dastgir, Abdul Wahid, Syed Shahid, James Watts and others spoke to journalists.

Nurse leaders presented their 10 demands and requested Chief Minister Sindh and Health Department Sindh to accept and implement immediately otherwise protest in all hospitals of the province will be launched from Monday, October 22, 2018.

- Nurses demands -

The protestants have demanded an approval on 5-tier formula for nurses,  adding that  health professional allowance be release through-out province.

They have also sought a raise in stipends of nursing students to go up to 20,000 per month as equal to Punjab and KPK.

They  have sought Pakistan Nurses Council and Ombudsman Sindh to approve a decision regarding holding special exam to save future of 400 nursing students.

The demands also state that  nursing schools be allowed DDO powers, adding that announcement be made to establish a nursing university and funds be allocated.

It further states that 14,000 new nurses be appointed by creating new posts,  including an additional secretary technical  to be appointed in health department from nursing cadre.

It demanded that announcement of Sindh Public Service Commission regarding positions of controller and deputy controller be followed in letter and spirit.

It has also stated that selection during election of Pakistan Nursing Council from Sindh be cancelled.

- Demands not fulfilled  despite CM's orders -

"We have presented our justified demands to health department officials but were ignored every time. Nurses are considered back bone of health system but Sindh health department want to make it disable,"  nurses leaders expressed their grief.

"You all know that when even close relatives and family members avoid to see a patient, at that time too nurses are providing them required care. Despite such services of nurses, we are exploited by health department officials", they added.

They pointed out that all other three provincial governments are upgrading nursing profession and providing them with incentives. 

"We have a recent example of KPK where their CM has approved 5-tier formula for nurses. In Punjab, implementation on 5-tier formula is at last stages. Even in Balochistan, recommendations are ready but Sindh health department has not taken any practical step to address our issues so far", they lamented.

Nurses leaders said it is heartening to share that there is no significant promotion for nurses in Sindh as majority of us appointed in bps-16 are retired in same grade.

After massive protest of 2017, a committee formed by sindh health department worked on recommendations in this regard but that too were not entertained by the department. 

They  sent several reminders to concerned officials but they even not bothered to reply, but received positive response from CM Sindh.

 They said health department did not follow despite CM's  clear instructions to solve our issues.

 "After all this situation, we have no choice other than launching protest campaign again", they concluded.