Harmony in health sector

The country’s health sector was one of the State bodies which was perennially plagued by strikes in recent times. One recalls the numerous work to rule and go slow campaigns and work stoppages in Government hospitals at the drop of a hat. All these were for minor issues, holding the patients to ransom. If the doctors did not strike over some administrative bottleneck, nurses demonstrated outside hospitals for some grievance or other and workers downed their tools demanding higher pay. The hapless public were mere onlookers of this unfolding drama with even deaths of patients often reported due to malfunctioning of hospitals.

Thankfully this scenario was not witnessed for sometime now where TV used to show empty forlorn Government hospitals during one of these regular strikes, in their news broadcasts, giving the public a sense of assurance that hospital strikes were a thing of the past. Or have they being lured into a false belief?

Now it appears that the spectre of hospital strikes is once again raising its ugly head after a long hiatus. From the on going developments it is clear that a shown down is imminent between doctors and nurses over a proposal by the Health Ministry to assign special ranks to nurses which the doctors fear would be a challenge to their authority.

According to the new Nurses’ Minute a nurse who now functions in a special grade or class would be raised to the post of supervisor or manager. Doctors say that according to the list of duties under these new positions nurses will be given leeway to act in an arbitrary manner even countermanding the orders and directives of doctors and other medical staff.

The GMOA states that this would throw the entire administrative set up in the health sector topsy turvey with nurses armed with their new rank working at odds with the doctors causing a break down in the hospital functions. It says it is planning Trade Union action against the move.

The nurses on their part has stuck to their guns and are urging the Ministry to implement the new minute without giving into the threats of the GMOA. The Public Service Nurses Union says the GMOA cannot decide on behalf of nursing fraternity or interfere in moves made for their betterment.

They refute the claims made by the GMOA that nurses will assume undue authority if the Health Ministry proposal is implemented saying the changes made to their positions would only be nominal and their roles and functions will remain as before.

The public are now watching this turf war in the health sector not without trepidation hoping it will not develop into a full blown campaign ending in yet another hospital strike which was mercifully spared the public for some time.

The Health Ministry should step in without delay to avert such a situation and to ascertain whether a compromise could be worked out between the parties. Dilly dallying could only be at the cost of the patients.

Surely the views of the doctors should take precedent in a dispute of this nature but it is also premature on the part of the GMOA to plunge into precipitate action without even putting the proposal to the test. Certainly no doctor would want to be countermanded or his authority undermined by a nurse who though engaged in an equally noble profession is entirely a different kettle of fish in the totem pole.

Besides, nurses today have won much of their demands and have little to complain about. They have also been afforded opportunities in hospitals in countries such as the USA through the intervention of the Government. They should try to avoid confrontation and work in harmony with the doctors to avoid another crisis. After all, it is the lives of the patients that are at stake.

The doctors for their part should be circumspect and not make a mountain out of a molehill. A mere change in the name of a nursing post we are certain is not going to create such an upheaval. It is wrong to assume things before they take place. We are sure the doctors with their superior learning and intellect would consign this matter into limbo without making it a battle of egos with the nurses who after all are their subordinates in every respect.