Daily Times

It is ironic that Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has taken notice of a nurses’ protest, though they have been on the road demanding better job conditions for last two weeks. Earlier, on Wednesday, police used force against the protesters and arrested many nurses when they breached police barriers to reach the Governor’s House where Prime Minister Imran Khan was holding a meeting at that time. Then, chaos erupted on Thursday when the nurses held a demonstration outside the Chief Minister’s House. In all, 25 nurses were arrested. Now, the chief minister has ordered the deputy inspector general (south) to release them. The Sindh Nurses’ Alliance (SNA) has been holding a protest camp at the Karachi Press Club for the past two weeks demanding an increase in allowances and a four-tier promotion mechanism. The government had agreed to announce the initiation of allowance and the promotion rules in the budget but it violated the agreement. The chief minister says they have talked to the SNA and have reached an agreement with them. The nurses, however, demand the issue of the notification of the acceptance of their demands.

Nurses make the most important part of a patient’s treatment at a hospital. All over the world, nurses are treated with extreme respect, and, in turn, nurses perform the best practices in hospital wards. In fact, it is the nurses who run the hospitals. This is, however, a manifestation of unprofessional norm on part of nurses to boycott the place of their duty. They are following an ugly trend, established by doctors. Young Doctors Association activists have introduced a culture of strike across Pakistan in recent years. Their strikes worked well and the government awarded them with better pay scales. When the government was working on doctors’ job structure, it should have also worked on nurses and paramedics’ too. Now, in the absence of nurses, the Sindh Health Department had to engage doctors and student doctors to fill in the nurses’ duties.

It is about time for the government to start working to make nursing a lucrative occupation. Many qualified nurses have left Pakistan for greener pastures because of better pay scales at foreign hospitals. The government should announce a proper job structure for nurses and paramedics for they spend vigil after vigil comforting the patients in pain. Many nurses have died in the line of duty. They contracted contagious diseases and tragically died in recent years. The Sindh government should honour the agreement it made with the nurses some two months ago. *