4 Mar 2014

Vanuatu nurses plea for government to drop health reforms

3:04 pm on 4 March 2014

The Vanuatu Nurses Associaton has again called on the prime minister, Moana Carcasses, to reconsider changes to the country's health structure.

The interim president of the association, Anne Pakoa, says the Public Service Commission endorsed the new structure last month but the government has turned a blind eye to a petition from the nurses.

Ms Pakoa says a critical concern is that the post of chief nursing officer, who used to take any concerns nurses had to a high level, has been removed.

She says there have also been cuts to nurses' wages and some have been demoted.

"It is actually affecting a lot of people and this is not only position wise and title wise, it is actually affecting their lives through the degradation of salary scales and we know very well that once it affects nurses at that level it also affects them in their performance as well."

Anne Pakoa.