Islamabad - Nurses associations in all four government hospitals of the city on Thursday announced to lockdown the services in hospitals owing to non-implementation on their demands of providing service structure facilities.
Dozens of male and female nurses including student paramedics’ staff of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Polyclinic, Capital Hospital and Federal Government Services Hospital staged a protest in front of National Press Club (NPC) and chanted slogans against concerned ministry.
All public sector hospitals in the federal capital are working under the Ministry of Capital Administration & Development Division (CADD).
The protestors demanded from the government similar facilities being provided to the paramedics in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
According to information available with The Nation there are around 700 nurses employed at PIMS, 500 at Polyclinic, 200 at Capital Hospital, 100 at NIRM and FGSH.
Nurses demanded from the concerned authorities to provide time scale promotions because promotions have not been awarded to the nurses for years.
Protestors also asked to give the allowance in categories of risk, uniform, mess and increase in stipend of student nurses.
Currently, Rs 6800 is being provided to student nurses in the federal capital hospitals as stipend.
Talking to The Nation, President PIMS nursing association Imam Din said that the association has raised its demands on all concerned platforms but no one has answered the call.
“For last one year delaying tactics are being used ignore our case,” he said.
As per Imam Din, nurses association presented its case before their concerned hospital authorities which have processed the case and forwarded it to the ministry.
“CADD ministry is not taking any action on our demands and we will stage the series of protest until our demands are met,” said president nurses association.
According to him, concerned authorities will be given one-month for the implementation on demands and if not processed, complete strike in all government hospitals will be observed.
“We will also lockdown hospitals if demands are not met in given time frame,” said Imam Din.
Meanwhile, female representative nurses association Zubia Asif told The Nation that all nurses of federal hospital have gathered for the improvement in service structure of the nurses.
“In Punjab and KP, student nurses are being given around Rs 25000 as stipend while at federal level they are being paid less than Rs 7000,” she said.
She also stated that nurses are raising their voice for these demands for last seven years but ministry has not responded in this regard.
“Every year nurses are told that in next budget funds will be allocated for this purpose but nothing practically has been done yet,” said Zubia.
Official from Ministry of CADD was not available for comment. Meanwhile, keeping in view the shortage of trained nurses and paramedic staff in hospitals, National Vocational & Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) has introduced a training course for nurses.
In this connection, a meeting was held at NAVTTC which was attended by the executive director NAVTTC Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema, officers of NAVTTC, Vice Chancellor PIMS University Dr Javed Akram and his team.
NAVTTC will soon introduce a training course for nurses at par with the international standards to cater the shortage of training staff in the hospitals, Zulfiqar Cheema said while addressing the meeting.
It was decided in the meeting that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will soon be signed between NAVTTC and PIMS University through which young boys and girls, after completing the nursing course under NAVTTC, will be given on-the-job training at PIMS so that they are able to secure jobs both at home and abroad.
Vice Chancellor PIMS Dr Javed Akram appreciated the initiative of NAVTTC and extended their full cooperation in this regard. Principal Nursing School & College and the concerned authorities were also present in the meeting.
rahul basharat