Nursing officers to withdraw from all health services

4 April 2020 02:57 pm

The Government Nursing Officers' Association said today that it has decided to withdraw from all health services islandwide due to alleged ill-treatment of nursing officers and lack of recognition of their services. In a letter to the Health Ministry Secretary, the Association headed by Saman Rathnapriya had stressed that its officers had been engaging in health services regardless of the threat of prevailing pandemic situation. However, the association said the officers have not been granted even their minimum facilities and that their bonuses and privileges have also been cut off. "Nursing officers at hospitals have been completely neglected. We urge to take notice of the decisions reached during the meeting held with the Health Minister on March 29," the letter said. According to the letter, some of the decisions are to provide the nursing officers with necessary health facilities, to provide officers with accommodations and healthy food, making sure that nurses are entitled to holidays and arrange duties in a way that it doesn't affect the off-days and holidays. "If these demands are not met, we are not hesitant to withdraw from all health services from Monday(6)," it said.