15 Mar 2014

Government fails to meet promise to Vanuatu nurses

11:08 am on 15 March 2014

Contract nurses in Vanuatu did not receive their salaries on Friday, despite promises from the acting director general of health that they would.

On Monday, more than 100 contract nurses at Port Vila Central hospital received a letter saying that they would no longer be paid, but the health ministry denied this, saying some of the nurses' paperwork wasn't properly filled out.

The acting director general, Dr Santos Wari, said those nurses will be paid next week, despite the earlier promise that they would be paid on Friday.

But the interim president of the Vanuatu Nurses Association, Anne Pakoa, says this is unacceptable and the government is continuing to lie to the nurses.

" This is basic information that nurses need to know, mind you we not only have nurses in Port Vila or Santo, there's a lot of nurses out there. There is a nurse in one of the outer islands in Tafea province that has not been paid for about 9 pay days. So how can you survive without 9 pay days?"

Anne Pakoa says some nurses on Luganville have received their recent pay in bags of rice.