The Vanuatu Health Ministry is denying contract nurses were told they will no longer be paid, and says pay will be back to normal by the end of the week.
The Vanuatu Nurses Association says some nurses have not received salaries for months.
The Association also says 100 contract nurses at Port Vila Central Hospital received a letter saying they will no longer be paid, apparently because the Health Ministry is short of money.
However, the acting Director General of Health in Vanuatu, Dr. Santos Wari, says there was no such letter from the ministry, nor is the ministry short of money.
He says the pay problems arose because the human resource and finance areas of the Ministry of Health and the Port Vila Central Hospital were not performing as they should.
"But right now the Ministry is taking a very close look at those two departments to improve capacities. In fact all these contracts will have been fed into the system in the last few days. There will be normal contract, and then they will be getting their money normally, starting from the next pay-day, that is this coming Friday."
Dr. Santos Wari says the nurses who are missing pay, will of course be back-paid.
