Govt. will be able to end shortage of nurses

Nadira Gunatilleke

COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapaksa will hand over appointment letters to 1,200 newly trained nurses tomorrow at 9.00 a.m. at Temple Trees. Health Care and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva will also be present, Health Care and Nutrition Ministry spokesman said.

He said this group is an additional group to the Ministry's 15,000 nursers recruitment programme. At present 11,000 nursers are undergoing training in different training schools. The Ministry will provide 60 nurses for each province from this new batch.

North and East provinces will receive 88 nurses. The rest of the provinces will receive 912.

Since 1995 about 22,538 nurses had been recruited to the State service under the directions of Minister De Silva. Another 21,956 had been recruited to the external training. But during the 17 year UNP regime, there were only 5,000 nurses had been recruited.

The Government will be able to end the shortage of nurses with the recruitment of 15,000 nursers, he added.